B_ant by Bruno Bikes is the Japanese brand’s collection of small wheeled touring and road bikes. They’re steel framed beauties with friction shifters on the stem and decked out with Brooks leather cockpits. They’re so cute that, once again, we’ll need a bigger garage.
Not much bigger, though, as the rest of the bikes in this roundup are sorta just oddities or collectibles or, well, you’ll see…
B_ant. B_ant. B_ant da dant da dant da dant da daaaaa….
Alter Cycles is a startup that uses flexible downtubes to change the frame’s ride feel. Called No Friction Bike Suspension, the rider can swap out the downtube bow to make it more or less plush without affecting pedal power or deal with pivots and maintenance.
It’s a pretty simple concept, which also provides the ability to tune the feel to rider weight. Just pop the front up and unbolt the bottom and swap in a new beam.
A cover keeps the front end looking smooth when installed.
They also offer different patterns and colors so you can customize the look.
This 1964 Fleetwing was built for the US market by KTM.
No doubt it was made to match the lines of that era’s automobiles.
How’s that for braking friction? Probably made a cool noise, too!
The BESV Lion X1 e-bike houses the battery inside the frame, which powers a rear hub motor. It’s also hiding various electronics that sense riding conditions and user input to automatically switch modes for the best riding experience and power usage. They even have an app for it that gives the rider control over the system and checks the route for traffic and other alerts along the way. It’s all done to showcase Darfon Innovations Corp’s e-bike technologies.
Chimpanzee’s custom Workcycle bike was built to showcase their nutrition products and act as a mobile store or sampling space. They had it built to suit their needs, and it was very, very cool. I wouldn’t want to pedal it far, but definitely cool.
