OK, Honda makes cars and motorcycles.
And Cannondale makes/made bikes and a supposedly amazing MX moto.
Now consider that I recently saw a website about a big race called “Gravity Sport” or some such where all the big car-makers competed at building faired vehicles for descending some mountain course. (Easy Racers made the 2nd place vehicle for one of the car-makers.) www.gravityseries.com/
These “Gravity” rigs are like streamliner HPVs without the pedals or the utility potential. What’s up with that? If it was a regular HPV contest, with pedaling and very similar vehicles and enormous utility potential, no car-makers would be around.
Didn’t bikes, motorcycles, recumbents, HPVs and cars all develop together?
I think car-makers need to get into the bike biz. (And the motorcycle biz, why not.) The Americans are having a hard time selling cars anyway: time to diversify. And as gas gets more pricey and scarce…
Well, for that matter there are no major bike-makers involved in IHPVA contests are there?
More to the point: Has anyone even ASKED any carmakers or big bike companies to kick in, to sponsor, to build?
If Honda can make cars, bikes, trucks, outboard motors…
And if Shimano can make bike-parts and fishing equipment (and who knows what else)…
Now, a couple bike companies have indeed dabbled in recumbents. But I don’t know if Trek and C’dale’s foray into ‘bents was on a par with C’dale’s attempt at a motorcycle. You have to mean it for it to work. I suppose there does have to be “organic” internal growth for a product line. But ‘whim’ probably isn’t the best start. I wonder how Giant is doing with their Revive semi-bent?)
I’m thinking that maybe the best potential for HPV with either a carmaker or big bike company is in the UTILITY vein. Well, there’s been significant interest and growth in HPV-sport, both regionally and on the Worlds level, for just that: utility events where cargo, safety, handling, lighting, cleanliness and speed are all tested. Isn’t that an obvious place for citybike makers (like Breezer) to show up and enhance?
Offhand, I see no reason why big vehicle companies (moto or bike) wouldn’t be win-win by developing a solid, efficient HPV of whatever kind—fast, safe, weatherly. I suspect that the velomobiles produced by the several small outfits that make would be considered prototypes in terms of economy of scale: hence the cost. If a big company backed a velomobile couldn’t they cut sticker price hugely?
Velomobile people are already selling their vehicle bodyspace for *ADS*. Would it be smart for big vehicle makers (bike or moto) to put a few such vehicles into daily use in major cities? I’d think there’d be more impact than having their name on a team jersey.
Also, machineshop skills probably have lots of crossover. Bikes, cars, motos, velomobiles: what’s the diff—wouldn’t any typical corporate facility have equipment that an HPV builder would die for? How much better could HPVs develop with such equipment?
There’s already lots of moto/pedal crossover in sporting TALENT. Motorfolk aren’t naturally prejudiced against pedals. They all kinda go together in today’s world. Several of my top bike racer pals are way into motor-racing. Several worldchamp bike racers have gone on to motor-racing. Probably 99% of all bike events are heavily CAR-supported. These aspects should SYNERGIZE for biz optimization—I mean, if a company has the tools and know-how for one, they could extend them to the others.
OK, there’s a Ford dealership pro bike race team in Michigan. And a national Saturn squad. And Subaru sponsors US XC Olympic ski racing. Why not just keep the ball rolling? Start with sponsorship, move to manufacturing!
The barriers gotta come down, is all I have to say.
I think it would be neat and beneficial to see an ad series pushing the coolness, the R&D, of *bikes* in a car mag, say. A vehicle is a vehicle, baby.
Of course, who’s to say where the barriers will or should fall first: you can’t hardly get any respect for HPV, ‘bents, faired vehicle R&D even *within* cycling!
I’ve long had an idea for running a year’s-worth of co-op ads (sponsored by, say, ten ‘bent businesses) in “Bicycling” that promote recumbents, to try to push them off the fence and put the ‘bent image out where it has to be if it’s going to break thru to enhance cycling diversity.
Biking is a big tent—I think we underappreciate how FEW cyclists know, especially this in terms of media. But transit in general is an even-bigger tent.
Wild wide-ranging rant over’n’out!
