The winner of the urban bike design contest is Seattle's Denny. I dunno, I don't want one. How about the rest of the group, what say you?
http://www.wimp.com/futurebike/
More bikes more better so yes, I appreciate the thought and design and I do see some teeny tiny bit of room for improvement. 1) handlebars need to be light, locks sturdy. The bar/lock combination results is either a heavy, unstable bar and or a light lock. 2) If you're unclipping/clipping the bar to lock and unlock the bike several times a day how unstable will the bars be in how long? 3) Brakes are near the stem. Instead of braking from the bars/brifters on the bars you're at the stem which is the least stable position 4) Nice that there's a front rack. With the load on the front the rider a) has a blocked view of hazards on the road such as potholes, debris, tracks and b) is front heavy. 5) There is no way to attach a rear rack or even panniers. 6) The fender brush idea thingie creates drag which a) slows the bike b) creates wear on the tires. 7) This is designed in Seattle so I assume the designers ride in the rain? Ya ever noticed how the best fenders curve around the tire? Why is that? Well schmuts, dirt, mud gets all over the tire, spokes and not JUST on the bead which is the only thing being brushed off. So no thank you to this in the rain as it will leave me with a skunk strips. 8) Fit. I'm under 5" and don't imagine it will fit. 9) There is not stock anything on this bike. So if I break a spoke, need new bars, headset whatnot I can not go to my LBS. I'll need to go to the one and only place I can get replacement parts. 10) Speaking of which I may need non standard headset, seatpost, bars to make this fit. Back to the non standard anything issue. This is a $10,000 Walmart bike. That is non replaceable parts. 11) Back to price; for the price I could have 5 (five) more of my Salsa Vaya with front AND rear racks, lights, Brooks saddle, simply awesome groupo, panniers, disk brakes, water bottle cages (oooh, #12) where are the bottle cages???) and freaking gorgeous to boot.
