Admit it, you want to know how it rides don’t you? Though a computer generated image, it brings some interesting thoughts on where bikes could be headed. There was a day when people shunned 29ers, and even went as far as coming out with a 69er thinking you could have your cake and eat it too. Since then bike geometry has changed as much as people’s mindset and nowadays 29er’s stand tall above all.
Check out some more pics and a close-up of that “geared steering” setup & their pretty interesting reason behind it…
Billed as “Interpolate” from the Ridiculous XC Bike catalog, CG Artist & Designer Patrick Ng, the brainchild of this concept is no stranger to us at Bikerumor. He is also the one behind the infamous Roost Carbon bike with 188mm dropouts, 28 inch wheels, and a 53t cassette. However crazy Interpolate seems, the concept has some interesting bits.
Those 39er wheels are huge to say the least and wheelies would be non-existence with that bottom-bracket about two-stories below the axle height, (though with 39 inch wheels, you could probably “roll” about everything there is). It probably wouldn’t even turn on a dime… or would it?
Though this cracks me up, I’d love to give this thing a go for a few weeks. The idea is to have the bike fit similar to that of a 29er. The Interpolate’s geared steering rig is interesting. It is designed to allow you to change out the cog for different steering ratios, so in theory you could “speed up” the steering if need be. If this had a “slider” mount for the steering, you could also have infinite stem adjustability. It also sits the rider back enough to eliminate front wheel toe-lap. Though appearing to put the rider back too far, the contact patch of that 39inch front tire is likely more than enough for gobs of traction.
Ridiculous XC Bike – Interpolate:
- 39 inch wheels
- Repositioned steering input/ouput to eliminate toe-wheel collision.
- Pulley steering system; swap sprockets to speed up or alter steering characteristics. (Steering ratio in current build: 1.16)
- Inbuilt steerer chain tensioner.
- Riding position similar to contemporary 29er XC bikes.
