A few peeks at Manifest Design Challenge entries

Sean Chaney of Vertigo Cycles
posted this sneak peek of
his Design Challenge entry.

The Constructor’s Design Challenge (part of Oregon Manifest) is coming this Friday. The event is an unprecedented opportunity to have the brightest minds in bike building put their skills and experience into building the Ultimate Transportation Bike. Each entry will be judged and then ridden to see which one comes out on top. It’s a bike geek’s dream come true.

We’ll have three people covering the event (I’ll be in California visiting family) and we’ll bring you the full lowdown. But since I tend to get impatient about big events like this and I love to get sneak peeks of upcoming action, I thought I’d share some photos of some of the bikes that will be entered into the competition.

The first bike I’ll share, built by some who requested to remain anonymous, rolled by the office today. It had some nifty features including an alarm system, a sleeve on the front rack for a u-lock, custom rear rack with bent tubing that allows for easy access to brake towers, and more. Here are a few photos:

Notice: Mount for light (powered by front hub dynamo of course), security alarm, and u-lock sleeve.

Rack tubing bent for quicker/easier access to rear brake arms.

Sean Chaney from Vertigo Cycles is creating his bike out of titanium (his material of choice). Sean has uploaded several photos of it — along with a few hints to what it will have — to his Flickr page.

The guys from Metrofiets — who were behind the much-heralded Hopworks beer bike — are up to their usual customizing craziness. They worked with local carbon fiber master Shawn Small of Ruckus Components to design a carbon fiber overlay for their front rack. Metrofiets is looking for any edge in weight they can get, since the bikes not only have to survive scrutiny of judges but also have to compete in a race the next day.

This carbon fiber bit — the largest thing Shawn Small has ever made — will go inside the rack of a Metrofiets cargo bike.
(Photo: Metrofiets)

And Tony Pereira has been talking smack for weeks now about his bike. I’m sure it will be interesting, but so far the only photo I’ve seen is this custom rack bag he’ll put on it (it was made by Portland-based Lemolo Bags)

A custom rack bag made by Lemolo that will adorn Tony Pereira’s Design Challenge bike.
(Photo: Tony Pereira)

Stay tuned for more coverage of all the events coming in the six-week, international summit of bike culture, the Oregon Manifest. Also be sure to visit our Oregon Manifest Special Coverage page for previous stories.