Strange Bikes: Ed Hood has been looking back in time when bikes were ‘innovative’ in very radical ways, and not always for the best. Here is his choice of radical/unorthodox bike designs, some artisan beauty and some just plain ugly.The low profile – The beginning of the end for Stephen RocheIt was Stephen Roche who said that with the advent of the low profile design, bicycles ceased to be beautiful. And whilst todays carbon – or is it plastic as the old boys say? machines are striking, it would be pushing it to call them beautiful in the way you can a 70s Raleigh, Bianchi or Masi. We thought it might be interesting to have a wander through some alternative designs of bicycle – judgement on their aesthetics is up to you.A thing of beauty?# Horace Bates:Back in the day of Simon Pure amateurs in the 1930s the British cycling journals of the day frowned upon publishing pictures which displayed the frame builders marque too prominently. Bates came up with their double radius diadrant front forks which illustrated better than any decal who had made the frame that such and such a star was riding. But the double radius wasnt just a gimmick, it was intended to give a more comfortable ride – and indeed, modern Pinarello forks arent a million miles away from Bates in terms of contours. Bates other innovation was cantiflex tubing, specially drawn for them by Reynolds; where the tube wall thickness was thinner in the…
Pez Cycling News