Congratulations! That’s huge!
As for commenters, if you truly want to see society at it’s worst, you can find it in the comment section of any major newspaper or tech blog…
Couldn’t agree more! I fear for humanity when glancing through the comments section of any Yahoo! news article. I try not to read them but it’s akin to rubber-necking at a traffic accident on the freeway.
Whatever the case, yes, Interbike is going to be a big deal and I’m incredibly excited and scared at the same time. Since this was originally a school design project, I should probably write a book at how NOT to bring a product to life!! It’s much, MUCH harder than you could ever possibly imagine.
Yah! Congrats man. That is great.
Since this was originally a school design project, I should probably write a book at how NOT to bring a product to life!!
Wait, this is a student project? I checked your Coroflot to see you’re 10 years out of school? Clarification needed 
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Nice renders, nice bike. I’m not a big bike guy but looks sharp. I love the details on the gears, handles, etc. that you thought out.
I came up with the idea back in 1999 while working on a design competition in school. After graduation, I continued to work on it as a portfolio piece. It was only a few years ago that I decided to try making it myself.
Nice work. As a vehicle for showing off Cerevellum I think its great. There aren’t many ‘standards’ for bike design obviously, so ‘good’ is in the eye of the beholder, but here’s my commentary -
- Road bike or TT? There are some mixed messages - the horizontal top tube makes it more time-trial, as does the larger, slightly faired DT and gusseted HT. The angles and chainstay widths are definitely road bike though.
- I think integrated or extended seat tubes look better with sloping top tubes. Too little seat post showing and the bike looks old-school.
- I like the flipped levers/hoods and even think it would work well both on the hoods and drops, because you’d have a lot of braking leverage in a less strong position (hoods) but a little less leverage in a strong position (drops), so it kind of evens out the braking experience.
- Mad Fiber Wheels?
- I dig the cranks. Why not.
- Again the integrated/bayonet stem speaks to a time trial bike without clear benefits for a road position, plus reminds me of the adjustable stems people use while figuring out their riding angles.
- Weakest point for me is the seat “cluster” - there’s not as much surface articulation or visual interest there as on the rest of the bike. Sort of an old-school radiused mass. I think I see a Trek-style Kamm-tail behind the seat post but more could be done to sex it up, maybe some new Cerevellum rear-light concept. And all this design, and it uses a regular seat clamp??? The horror!
- I’m kind of with NURB, not really feeling the fixie-assemblage of the chopped bars, but its close. Maybe just changing the profile of the bars to use different shape would help. Personally I love the feel and look of ‘wing’ shaped bar tops, with subtly surfaced grip areas on the hoods.
- Conclusion - This is a good concept, but your knowledge of bikes and assembly is getting in the way of it being a truly sick concept. Don’t take this wrong, because I know you know what you’re doing. I think you can push it more, question every part, joint, connection, and make it really cool. Plus it will be immunized from the curse of “another vaporware concept” due to blunt reviews on Core77.
Go get em.
Slippy, thanks for the comments. You’ve made some great suggestions. I’m incredibly busy at the moment as you can imagine with Cerevellum, but I’d like to create a second version of the Ra’el with a more ergonomic bar, better graphics, etc. By the way, those definitely are NOT Mad Fiber/Fibre wheels. They are my own design. The hub flanges actually blend into the fork and seat/chain stays. It’s hard to see in the renderings. I think the next version will be more of a “sick concept.” I tried to keep this one relatively close to reality as I’m going to drum up money to produce something like this.
Wow, you are getting a lot of blog-love! Just saw it on Autoblog (via translogic?), with the cervellum in focus. Hope it generates some acceleration for it, congrats!
loving the handlebars and the top tube. The tube that goes from the neck to the pedals still looks soft to me with that spline. It feels like it is sagging to my eye.
Ditto on the ‘sag’, but I think its a combo of that diagonal spline crossing the downtube, and the soft, somewhat ‘mushy’ curve at the top of the spline. That curve isn’t as tight or as regular as the other curves on the bike, especially in that third view.
Really like the BB area, as shown in the second view. Massive with big fender surfacing. Looks like it could house a power meter and electric motor in there, quite easily!
Keep up the good work.
Oh, where’s the rear-view camera?
Gruber Assist!
As a bike guy I have to say… nice! Maybe you’ll get a contract with Vroomen and White.
That said, there are some little structural and functional points to be made.
1: The curved seat stays will actually help the ride be a little more compliant, even though a great deal of the rear triangle strength is in the down tube and chain stays.
2: The hollow BB looks great but is bad for aero. If this was a Ventoux bike, then of course the mere appearance of weight savings could put the fear in your foes.
3: Might as well make the computer system aerodynamic, even to the point of acting like a wind diverter for the parts that follow it.
4: Grabbing brake on the drops would still be really tough, even on the latest iteration. The wrists would have to bend upwards to reach the levers with any amount of power. The reason top pivot levers work so well is because the most common reason to ride the brake hoods is for climbing and going up only requires enough brake to keep from running into the rider you’re passing. OTOH, descending in the drops sometimes requires a full butt-off-back-of-seat deceleration to make some of the hairpins.
5: Exactly where are the brakes?
:)ensen