Thursday, July 25, 2013

Shooting for Land Speed on a Pedal Bike

Apparently the land speed record for a pedal bike is 167mph...
Not a type-o. 167. I can't even fathom...

Aprilia Facet Fairings


Connected the dots in Pat's photo of the Aprilia, resulting in these translucent futuro fairings to unify the form of the bike and rider.  Didn't think too much about this; please return the favor.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

RSV4

It's been a decade since anyone's posted anything. Here's a placeholder from Sportbike Track Time. Possibly my favorite factory bike right now. So many awesome details and graphics going on. Looks like a fun ride.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Difference Engine


In some ways this contraption makes more sense than capacitors and circuitry.  What's so incredible about this "Difference Engine" is that it was fully planned in Victorian times and what stopped it from being made was the inability to precisely construct all the pieces at the time (coupled with the timeframe in which he was given to build it.. clock and other jewelery precision from that era is still incredible to me, but they took extraordinary amounts of man-hours to make.)  It's encouraging to know that Babbage could plan beyond the abilities of men at the time; it's every designer's dream to think of something that others claim is impossible (it's kind of our job..) but Babbage took it to the next level and completely engineered it as well.  Now that he's been dead for 200 years, one has finally been built.  It's a thing of beauty, and I'm surprised the Ford Museum hasn't had one made.

Now that we're rapidly demolishing the physical construction barrier with nanotechnology and new materials with super strength and durability, what barrier would you like to see broken in 200 years?  What do you find is one of your greatest limitations?




Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Industrial Art

The work of Felix Godard has struck me as worth noting.  Although I've been seeing a lot of advanced ID concept work facilitated by CAD, very little of it comes close to being as sculptural or dynamic as the work of this Frenchman. A trend that's annoyed me recently is cluster-design; sort of mashing things together that look technological to fill in the space between sculpted panels.  It's certainly interesting to look at, but it never comes off as cutting edge to me.  Maybe I'm just upset that I'm not very good at that style!  

In contrast, Felix's work exudes the appearance of a thoroughly resolved, polished, ready-to-go sculpture, with a touch of fantasy he must've picked up during his time in Japan.  Also worth noting is his recent improvement; a search reveals mediocre sketches and struggles with proportion.  All that seems to be gone, creating a fresh spectacle for your brain to wrap around.  Enjoy!






Thursday, February 28, 2013

German Precision

Pop some popcorn, sit yourself down and watch an F30 be assembled by our future robot overlords. 

Wait for the spot welders and the gentle touch of the painters.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Prospective garage prospects

Track
Adventure
Commuter


I was going for consistency and finish.  Dave, the white tanks are what I used as my design cue, as per our conversation about design consistency over several models.  I think it works here but I don't know if it has the legs to work over a larger real world scale.  What do you guys think?