Project Revolt Tries to Take Bike Design to a Whole New Level

What we are looking at has been baptized Project Revolt. It is something Fabio Martins did one Saturday morning. Afterall, it’s what you do over coffee if you’re a transportation designer.

First off, let's leave the guy in the suit out of this and just focus on the bike. Now, we don’t' have any specs or anything like that, so everything we are going to talk about is hypothetical.

We’ve seen similar bike design before, on triathlon bikes, so we can be led to believe that’s what it could be used for. If so, then we have a marker to which we can compare the bike, the Orbea Ordu. If we take a long look at the living Ordu, we can see very direct similarities.

For instance, the distance between the wheel and fork arch creates a very tight gap. This is done to keep air from smashing into the downtube and slowing you down. The fork too has a shape that cuts into the front of the bike, but then lifts air away from the tire and over the downtube.

If we follow that path of air toward the rear of the bike, we can see that the seat-tube and post are designed around the same principle as the front of the bike. A slightly triangular shape continues to direct air around the sides of the bike. This is also another trait seen on triathlon bikes.

The rear triangle of the bike adds even more allure to its look, but possibly even some functionality. Because the triangle begins way in front of the seat-tube, it widens the entire frame just enough to throw the air outward and away from the bike.

If we look for a similarity between the cockpit on the revolt and other bikes, we can only see some similarities. The Revolt is missing most of the stack, but rather incorporates forearm pads, brakes, shifters and handlebars all in one place. If you suddenly have to start riding uphill, you won’t ever need to shift your hands to another set of handlebars

What I personally found interesting was the way the seat is shaped. You can almost say that its design is inspired by airplane wings. But is it comfortable? No one knows. By the looks of it, it could possibly cut into your leg as you’re pedaling away. Even the seat cover doesn’t sustain the idea of a comfy seat. But the designer did include six different riding positions for the seat. It can be moved closer to the front to accommodate a number of rider sizes.

One thing we never mentioned is that by the looks of it, this entire bike is designed with the use of carbon fiber elements. From the monocoque design of the wheels, to the fork and frame, and even the crankset (probably Shimano), are bear the carbon fiber look. This is also the preferred material for bicycles of this type as its durability and light weight is unmatched except by maybe graphene.

Personally, if I had to tools to make something like this I would, but then again, why haven’t any of the big bicycle designers made anything like this? Maybe it is just a dream machine after all.