Friday 23rd September 2016
Prodrive gets on its bike
Commute in style on Prodrive's new lightweight folding bike
You've probably picked up on the fact there's more love for cycling on PH than many might credit for a motoring forum; among the team here we enjoy turning a pedal on occasion and it seems it's a passion shared among many in the car industry too. Little surprise then collaborations between car and bike companies have been a fixture for many years, be that the famous Lotus track bike ridden to Olympic success by Chris Boardman, McLaren and Specialized sharing carbon fibre and aero know-how
for fancy road bikes or Caterham building a lightweight chassis from
Reynolds butted tubing.
Et voila!
Seems Prodrive wants in too, putting its expertise in lightweight engineering behind a new folding bike design called the Hummingbird, created by Petre Craciun and claimed to weigh less than anything else in the market. And whether you use a folder to speed up the run to the station or office, or perhaps as a paddock bike at race meetings, this looks like a seriously cool way to combine a love of motorsport and cycling in one compact package.
Bromptons remain the default choice for many but even the lightest ones can be hefty to hump up and down stairs in busy stations, the weight issue inspiring Craciun's design and developed by Prodrive with a carbon front end and intricate looking aluminium swingarm. This folds around the axis of the bottom bracket, maintaining chain tension even when folded and keeping the whole design light, stylish and easy to use. If, like a Brompton, it can squeeze into the front luggage compartment of Porsches, Ferraris, McLarens and similar sports cars they could be onto a real first-world urban transport solution here - we're hoping to grab a go with one when the first production examples are available in October. Watch this space...
[Sources: Autocar]
