love the bicycle

A beautiful new concept bike has been created by Cannondale from the design of Wytze van Mansum.

Many technical innovations going on. For example the rear fender is actually a structural element.
I love the way it looks, but this bike plays with the line that connects form to function. The drivetrain appears to be an internal rod driven mechanism. That’s certainly not a new technology, but I am sure greatly improved over historic applications. Since there are a few new drivetrain developments in the bike world right now, it’s as good a time as any to give this one a retry.

As beautiful as it is…
If I have a “fender bender” is the bike scrapped?
I live and ride in New York City so I can’t help looking at bikes and equipment through that lens.

More details from BicycleDesign

Forces are aligning themselves in this universe so that the convergence of cycling and fashion is all the rage. There was never a more perfect union of man and machine that a human being riding a bicycle. Naturally, we must adorn ourselves and send a flurry of visual messages in everything we do. The sophisticated cyclist; the Gentle Rider recognizes that looking good, dressing well on the bike is more that just poofery, it’s a signal louder than any airhorn, brighter than any reflective material.

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A true Gentle Rider must use his or her bike to break the bounds of the home metropolis every once in a while. Nothing changes your perspective on distance and the landscape like using your own power to cross a state boundary or a mountain range.

I recently went epic after my week-long family vacation upstate New York. We had spent the week relaxing in the bucolic country scene down a dirt road nestled in a valley. I brought along my finest (serious) road bike, since it has the double water-bottle holders. I brought the bike with the intention of riding it home to NYC (Brooklyn) at the end of my week. So during the week, I would get out as much as I could to scope out a route and to bank some miles into my legs and lungs.

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