Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Huh?

This looks like it is mostly well-designed for the purpose of cycling to the South Pole, but then they put derailleurs on it?! I wonder if the Los Angeles-based designers know what snow is.

5 comments:

William M. Connolley said...

Lower down, they have pix of what looks like a similar bike in snow.

Mind you, there is an awful lot of bollox in that article: "A plastic seat would shatter like glass in Antarctica's sub-zero weather" and yet the rubber tyres will apparently be fine.

James Annan said...

Well, I suppose if it's dry enough, it could possibly be ok. But if it gets anywhere near any moisture, it seems a disaster waiting to happen. I wonder how they will keep the freehub moving - then again, there must be plenty of machinery kept working on the bases down there, even through the winter.

David B. Benson said...

It appears that something similar has already been through actual Antarctica trials.

Tom Fiddaman said...

I've had my derailleurs freeze up, though it was the cabling rather than the der. themselves that was the problem. If the cable routing is internal it might work. Freezing your derriere is another matter...

The small-diameter tires seem like a strange choice. I'd think that they'd bog down in deep stuff because the angle of attack would be too great for them to climb out of it. I'd think that the Surly Moonlander-type approach would work better.

James Annan said...

Yes, same here with the freezing cables, but others have reported the cassette block filling up with ice too. However, it seems that the Arctic is too dry for this. Reports indicate they have still barely used the bikes though, and had to push them for miles.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/diaries/helen-skeltons-polar-challenge-for-sport-relief