Steampunky concept motorcyle

This is the creation of Mikhail Smolyanov, whose concept bike designs are, to a one, wonderful to behold. Funnily nostalgic, gloriously impractical, and beautifully rendered.

Solifague Design (via Kadrey)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: automotive • happy mutants • russia • shooped • Steampunk • wide

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nixiebunny

That is indeed beautifully rendered.

Guy needs to learn how spokes work, though. These ones won’t hold tension. As an engineer, blunders of that magnitude ruin the experience for me.
- dragonfrog
  
  I just looked back at the spokes and recoiled (slightly) in (mild) horror. In the smaller front-page preview, the trailing spokes on the far side of the wheel look like leading spokes
  - nixiebunny
    
    I see a movie playing in my head of the wheels going all floppy and the bike falling over.
- timquinn
  
  I think in this case we can allow that he knows how spokes work and is playing with you. Certainly one can imagine a mechanism whereby this could be accomplished. The attachment points don’t have to really be where they appear to be. They could continue into the hub and be securely welded so they would not twist. This would produce some springiness maybe, but not when spinning. What I mean to say is it could be designed to play with your sense of proper design which seems wholey appropriate in a show vehicle, whereas in a staircase, for example, the visual awkwardness might actually lead to falls.
  - timquinn
    
    As I look at it again I take it all back. Too much stress on those joints any way I can imagine attaching them. Would like to have a closer look though. To see if he gave it any thought.
http://profile.yahoo.com/6IOUGPFXUL4SCJX4UQFBZA75RA CliffordS

Steam powered motorcycles were a real thing. So if it actually existed? Is it still “steampunk”?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roper_steam_velocipede
- Andrew Singleton
  
  Yep.
  
  The ‘saftey’ bicycle’ is also a steampunk thing.
  
  Then again so were the penny farthings.
  
  Hell cycling is a steampunk activity.
  - timquinn
    
    yeah, but.
destroy_all_humans

i think they just invented a motorcycle that turns worse than an RV
- peregrinus
  
  Get your motor runnin’
  Head out on the highway
  Lookin’ for adventure
  Gonna take that exit
  
  Wait, darlin’
  Didn’t really make it happen
  Gonna have to wait just a little while
  the next one just might be straight
  Then we’ll explode into space
  
  etc
  
  Does look nice though. Top score for lip-smacking beauty.
- dragonfrog
  
  And clears speed bumps worse than one of those stupid sports cars lowered to within an inch or two of the ground.
Sebastian Wiers

Ce n’est pas une moto. Grab a grinder and a welder, spend a few hundred hours in the shop, then you have a motorcycle. Pet peeve, given I have the blisters from doing the later.
skeptacally

wait. did he just old-ify the newest bat cycle?
penguinchris

Came across this wonderful 1931 creation in the National Archives of the Netherlands’ flickr account recently: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/4193508328/
http://www.facebook.com/andy.the.awesome Andy Kerr

An interesting cross between steampunk and the streamlined look of the ’30s. Other than the spokes (I noticed that right away, too) I don’t see anything that couldn’t actually be built here.
Doctor Device

isn’t the rear shock in the wrong place? any load on the swingarm would be pulling on it instead of pushing. (that’s the first engineering blunder I noticed)
timquinn

You guys ever been to a car show? Take it on its own terms. Next you will be saying that that cape would never make Superman fly.