Tag Archives: bicycle

Porsche-Assisted Pedal

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Even for Porsche, this spoiler is ridiculous…

Back in 1979, French cyclist Jean-Claude Rude attempted to break the bicycle speed record of 127mph / 204kph. This meant a rather special bike, and also something to cut through the air ahead of it.

Martini Racing duly offered to modify one of their 800bhp Porsche 935 Turbos, fitting it with a custom air-deflecting casing behind the cabin. This TLCB Writer isn’t sure that an 800bhp Porsche was strictly necessary, but it’s better to be sure we suppose.

Unfortunately for Jean-Claude, whilst the Porsche 935 was up to the job, his bike’s rear inner tube was not, exploding during the record run. Now every cyclist knows that you always carry a spare, but seemingly Jean-Claude didn’t and that was the end of the record attempt.

Sadly, before he could try again, Jean-Claude Rude was killed by the wake of a train he was racing against, aged just 25.

Flickr’s HCKP13 pays homage to both Jean-Claude Rude and the magnificently weird modified Porsche 935 Turbo used to smooth the air ahead of him with this excellent Lego recreation of the failed record attempt. There’s more to see at HCKP13’s photostream, and you can join the 1979 record attempt via the link above. Just remember to bring a spare inner tube…

Seventies Cycling

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Peugeot, like many car manufacturers, didn’t begin by making cars. The company’s earliest products were saw blades and coffee and pepper grinders, but it was the bicycles that followed that made the business famous.

A decline in cycling interest post-war forced the company to refocus on automobile production, but a resurgence in the 1960s, as the bicycle transitioned from a transportation method to a leisure activity, created a new market for Peugeot’s pedal-powered products.

The company capitalised on this, producing road and race bikes that became world famous, and demonstrated their leadership in the world’s toughest (and Frenchiest) cycle race; the Tour de France, winning the event in ’75 and ’77.

This lovely 6-wide recreation of Peugeot’s 1970s Tour de France support car, complete with boot-mounted bicycles, comes from previous bloggee PalBenglat, who has captured both the ’70s Peugeot 504 and the vintage building style of LEGO at the time wonderfully.

Clever techniques and excellent presentation are evident throughout the build, and there’s more of the classic Peugeot to see at Pal’s photostream. Click the link above to put on your jersey and head into the French mountains c1975.

Insert Terrifying Child

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Why is it that kid’s toys are used as horror movie staples (LEGO thankfully excepted)? Sentient dolls, those horrific clapping monkeys, and tricycles pedalled around a creepy old hotels.

Perhaps our subconscious is dialled into imagined horrors thanks to said genre of film, but we’re wary of this seemingly unridden tricycle by Flickr’s dicken lui.

We won’t be taking a closer look for fear of blood-filled elevators and terrifying twins, but you can make the jump to the probably-innocent brick-built toddler transport via the link above.

Cycling Circles

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The Lego Car Blog’s home nation isn’t good at many things, but track cycling is a rare exception.

Cycling quickly in circle in a big group, cycling slowly in a circle with someone else, before suddenly cycling quickly, cycling in a circle behind a weird electric scooter thing… we can do all of them. It’s a good thing there are so many ways to cycle in a circle too, otherwise we wouldn’t win half the number of medals.

Previous bloggee George P angeleno (aka ZetoVince) pays homage to cycling in a circle with this fantastic kinetic sculpture, with a slithery track cyclist at the bottom of the banking and a motorised mechanism hidden underneath to bring it to life.

There’s more to see including a video of the cyclist in action at George’s photostream. Click the link above to follow the weird electric scooter thing.

Stick Shift

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Here’s a stick man on a stick bike. Stick with us because whilst we’re a car blog we bet for most of you reading this your first vehicle was a bicycle, and the first person you ever drew was of the stick variety. Which is good enough for us. Milan Sekiz is the artist and there’s more to see on Flickr. Click here to make it stick.

Steam Powered Velocipede

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The current craze for e-bikes shows that mankind’s propensity to make literally everything lazier continues unabated. However we’re not new in our quest to eradicate all forms of exercise, as back in the late 1800s our forebears had the same idea, first creating the ‘steam powered velocipede‘ which we want based upon its name alone, and later strapping a steam engine to a penny farthing, to eliminate all that inconvenient pedalling. Remarkably they worked too.

Cue TLCB Master MOCer and all-round Technic-building genius Nico71, who has created his own ‘steam’ powered bicycle (or velocipede as we shall now call it), equipped with a single cylinder Lego Pneumatic Engine, that – when fed with ‘steam’ (compressed air) – powers the velocipede through a two speed gearbox.

Every element of Nico’s machine is LEGO, including an ingenious design that genuinely ‘throttles’ the amount of air entering the engine controlled via a handlebar-mounted lever, a flywheel for maintaining the engine’s smoothness, and a working rear brake.

It’s all preposterously clever and best of all Nico has made instructions available so that you can build you very own Steam Powered Velocipede at home, which we genuinely might do! Head to Brickshelf to see all the imagery, Nico’s excellent website for full details and building instructions, and you can watch this remarkable contraption in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

 

Xích Lô

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The first Vietnamese Grand Prix was due to take place this year. Sadly it, along with most other sporting events, has been cancelled due to Coronavirus, although it did seem a slightly odd choice for a Formula 1 venue. With much of the population using bicycles or mopeds to move about, a Formula 1 car must have felt like a world away. But maybe that was the point.

This is a far more common Vietnamese vehicle, the humble Xích Lô pedal rickshaw, complete with a foldable canopy and a comfy rear-facing chair. This incredible Lego version comes from Hoang H Dang (aka Know Your Pieces) who has deployed a simply breath-taking array of ingenious building techniques to recreate Vietnam’s taxi. From the wheels to roof, the frame to the tree, Hoang has used a fantastically intricate combination of tubes and clips to create his Xích Lô and you can see more of his stunning build at his photostream via the link above.

This Goes Up To Eleven

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For once we’re not referencing Spinal Tap (well we are a bit), but this iconic scene from the TV series ‘Stranger Things’ in which psychokinetic schoolgirl Eleven flips a delivery van through thoughts alone. Built for the LEGO Ideas ‘Stranger Things’ competition, Flickr’s Hachiroku has captured the scene brilliantly and there’s more to see at his photostream here.

Stranger Things

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With LEGO branching out into the appropriately strange theme of Stranger Things, a strange LEGO Ideas condition is currently underway to build something strange. This is saabfan2013‘s entry, a suitably spooky set-up depicting four of the shows character’s atop some excellent brick-built bikes. Head to saabfan’s photostream via the link above for more strangeness.

Too Cool for School

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Lego Raleigh Chopper Bike

It’s early January, a time when kids everywhere shuffle despondently back into their crumbling educational establishments whilst their parents celebrate the survival of another Christmas.

Back in the 1970s this routine was exactly the same, only – if you were really lucky – you wouldn’t be shuffling to school, you’d be riding this; a brand new Raleigh Chopper bike!

Ludicrously styled, with a gear select lever mounted on the frame, high-rise ape-hanger bars, and oddly-sized wheels, there was nothing cooler in the whole world.

This glorious homage to one of the 1970s’ defining designs comes from Melan-E of Flickr, who has recreated not only the infamous Raleigh but also a few other ’70s icons to go with it, including a cassette tape boom-box and a retro backpack.

There’s much more of this brilliant creation to see at Melan-E’s photostream – click the link above to hang out with her behind the bike sheds.

Lego Raleigh Chopper Bicycle

Mike and the Mechanics

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Lego BMX Garage

Another day, another find, and another obscure British music reference for a title. You don’t get that at The Brothers Brick.

This brilliant garage scene comes from Flickr’s mike m., and it perfectly captures probably every garage in the land. Typical garage clutter is detailed in abundance, and we’re willing to bet that this single wonderful shot has done more to connect you with the days of your youth than anything else you’ve seen this week.

Look back with us courtesy of Mike’s photostream via the link above.

Pedal Power

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Lego Bicycle

We seem to have a self-propelled theme running today, despite this supposedly being a car blog. Although today’s posts are self-propelled we, er… haven’t been, seeing as we pinched this creation from The Brothers Brick who beat us to it. It’s the work of Melan-E of Flickr, it’s beautiful, and you can see it in full detail here. Normal car-based blogging will resume shortly…

Hipsters’ Dream

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Lego Fixie Bike

Commonly found meandering towards an independent coffee house in Shoreditch, the fixie bike has become the default mode of transport of the hipster. Given that the hipster movement is a counter-cultural one that attempts to shun anything mainstream, there’s a certain irony to the fact that they all seem to conform to this one choice of wheels. A true hipster would drive a Lamborghini. Anyway, this gorgeous Lego fixie bike is the work of previous bloggee Tim Schwalfenberg, and you can see more by clicking upon the link above.

Pedal Power

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Lego Bikes

Not that you’d know it from recent posts, but we are supposed to be a car blog. However, we do have a soft-spot for anything pedal powered – they were our first wheels after all. These two unusual builds come from Konajra on Flickr, and Stephan Niehoff of Flickr and MOCpages.

Konajra’s drift trike looks like a riot of fun. The same can’t be said for Stephan’s penny farthing mountain bike, which looks like one of the most dangerous contraptions ever invented. Join the ride via the links above.

Not a Car

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Lego Bicycle

It might not be a car, but Fujiia‘s bicycle is certainly one of the most beautifully elegant Lego creations published this year.

There are a lot more bikes in the world than cars too – for most of the earth’s population bicycles mean freedom, and for most of us they were our first wheels too. You can see more of Fujiia’s at the link.