Guillaume Bout's Bonkers Concept Bikes

 same

 It may be as much a curse than a blessing, but that's my normal way of being without smoking anything

 @Will-narayan: So what happens when you smoke things!?!?

 PUT IT ON PINKBIKE FIELD TEST!

 And a water bottle to booooot.

 How much does that big wheeler’s front Enve rim cost? That’s the real question here

 @chyu: rode and sponsored by Ratboy with a tophat

 I want that hardtail (numbers pending).

 @richierocket: You're the 3rd one in the comments to say that, of course there's quite a difference between saying "I'd want this" and actually buying it, but it's interesting.
Would you rather have a gearbox on a hardtail (some sort of wheather proof, trouble free hardtail for when it rains) instead of on a full-suspended bike and all the anti-squat theory/issue that comes with it ?
The price may be off-putting though.

@gnarnaimo: I'm totally rational and coherent :p

 This isn’t from smoking, its from hallucinogens lmao.

 @Will-narayan: Because pretty much everything was well outdated on my previous bike I indeed was very seriously considering some kind of gearbox to be then done with all worries about drivetrain wear and all that. I considered the Portus Cycles Krowd Karl ED, the Olsen bike (though I preferred steel, and he could get that sorted too) and I even discussed the possibility of a BTR Ranger with gearbox with Tam Hamilton. I also considered the Rohloff hub for the BTR and 11ants (local brand). Eventually I went with a fairly standard 26" wheeled BTR Ranger (though with a lowered top tube for more fun) with a Zee drivetrain. I'd need a massive load of drivetrain wear before the break even point of any of these. But yeah I seriously considered all of them. I also thought the Effigear was more interesting (and I at least understand how it worked) but some of these brands strongly preferred Pinion. But yeah I still think all of these bikes are quite cool. Especially the Krowd Karl ED with the Intend US forks as shown on Eurobike looks wicked. Though I think the way Olsen omitted the split rear triangle for use with the belt drive is very clever.

Maybe if I would really have wanted the wide gear range (currently riding 11-36 in the rear) I would have gone with one of these gearboxes. Especially as I hate long rear mechs. But you're never sure until you're very close to making the final call. I'm really happy with what I have now. And I later learned that if you really don't maintain those belt drive systems, belt and sprockets wear soon enough too. And these won't be cheap either. So yeah, that kind of misses the point for me. At least for making an investment like that. Not saying this goes for everyone, but these are the thoughts and considerations from someone who was quite close to getting a hardtail with some kind of gearbox.

@DirtMcGuirk07 : I think he's called Dandy Macaskull.

 20 and 50 aint dead

 @vinay: Ok, thanks for your feedback. Gearboxes are quite an investment.
Possible that several brands prefer the Pinion as it can be mounted on the frame, rather than be part of the frame like the Effigear, which may render the frame building more difficult (though they recently supplied a mountable version to Starling who’s currently doing a full-sus frame for it, so this may be cool).
The Effigear would need some kind of « breakout » deal to boost the development, hopefully the Muvea e-bike can help in this regard.

Yes the Olsen bike is interesting, I think I considered this solution too at some point, but as the Effigear output gear is higher compared to the concentric Pinion, it didn’t work design-wise, so I dropped the chainstay instead.

 I would buy the Penny Farthing! Hands down the most classy take on a bike from the past

 Thankfully with 2019 UCI rules changes its legal for comp next year

 Yeah, at first I was like, "Yawn . . . another carbon fiber, penny farthing mountain bike." But, then I was all, "Wait!! Did that say ALL MOUNTAIN?!"

 @rivercitycycles: you are SO PORTLAND!

 @taurausmountain: That's funny......because I live in Central Washington! My user name came from when I use to live in Sacramento which is also know as the River City

 @rivercitycycles: here I was thinking you represent the bike shop!

 Really depressing to hear as a rider still on a 26er...though you probably know your target market well enough to know that us cheapskates on old bikes aren't terribly likely to buy $2k wheels anyway.

 That ENVE 50” front rim would cost like $15K all by itself.

 Central WA represent! @rivercitycycles:

 @DRomy: let alone a 50" magic mary... I shutter to think what that costs...

 @DRomy: it is actually cheaper to make them then what they charge one 27.5 rim. Enve just likes to rip stupid people off.

 Our biggest tire is 36x2.25, making 50er? It wont be a big deal,,hell yeah!!

 I have a few ideas but I need to learn ZBrush first^^

 Most engineers I know wouldn't be able to draw like this. By the time you learn the material sciences and math you'd be stretched pretty thin to have these kinds of drawing skills.

 @iantmcg: I happen to know a couple of engineers and "sciences" to their everyday job are what maths is to me as an architect. During 10 years of my short career as an architect I worked with people without architectural degree who can design spaces better than some of architects I know. Conversely I am at least equal to some of engineers at our office at building construction, details, choice of materials, how to build stuff on the site. I can't calculate arming and can do only gross estimation o size of elements (even though I took two year course in calculations of concrete and steel) but still, I can operate in the building production and construction environment to a big degree. All that didn't stop me from learning basics of freeform 3D modelling and visualization.

What I mean with all this drivel is that education is more often a formal limiter to ones capability to GET a certain job, at least as long as you do not work alone. We always rely on competence of our coworkers, such team is always more efficient and creative than a bunch of nerds specialized in one direction. That leads to a conclusion that practice is always the supreme education. University is the entry card. One of very limited areas where school has to come forward is engineering trades dealing with stress calculations, these people can't be treating things lightly. Although in my "career" I have met structural engineers who were eager to try things and those who were absolute square heads. The latter is much harder to work with, while both kinds have to deliver solutions that will not collapse.

I am more than confident that having such modeling skills coped with basic understanding of function and structure (as well as usage) can create a very valuable working partner for many industries, in this case, bike in particular. When it comes to bicycle design, the engineering part is laughable. No matter how many courses you took, if you can't deal with production, you are not going to be successful, hence you hire a dude who is good at it to polish the details, set tolerances, advise how to cut costs. Look at companies like Transition, Pole, you can be sure these folks are not sharpest at "science"... more of learning by doing/failing. In bicycle design craftmanship is more important than God knows what course you took at which university. BTR is a perfect example. Single pivot, pfff, yeah, the issue with single pivot is that it is very hard to make one that does not look like Orange... it takes learning by doing, curiosity to create asthetically pleasing form for this suspension design. They made it, oh they did. But did they take a post doc at Oxford? No...

Combination of excellence at a few skills is no less valuable than perfection at a skill or two.

 Most engineers don't have any need to make a render like this, because it takes a lot of extra time and effort to make a pretty looking image; time and effort that is usually better spent on other aspects of the design. An ugly pastel color model is sufficient 99% of the time, as long as it is dimensionally accurate. The actual fabrication drawings are almost always black and white anyway.

The real beauty is in the final product. Modern bikes are technical marvels; it takes the cumulative effort of thousands of people to build the components of a mountain bike, all so that we can play in the dirt.

Edit: I should add that I think these renders are fantastic. My point is that it is a skill that wouldn't be needed by most engineers. Someone trying to make a pitch to customers though? killing it.

 @CaptainBLT: it has nothing to do with rendering. It has to do with ability to model particular kind of thing. It has to do with the feel for the form and shape. None of 3D visualization guys at my office or our grasshopper nerd wouldn’t make such accurate 3d models of bikes. Guy knows what he is doing, it takes skill, knowledge and sensitivity. Shiny materials, lighting, has nothing to do with what I wrote above. That is the exact reason why I completely dropped 3d visualization. It gave my my first job and allowed me to stay at it. I am happy I no longer need to do it, because you get bogged in trenches and nobody believes you can be a designer or engineer. You are a modern kind of painter. I havea feeling This fella here is more than that. I obviously appreciate his work here fully. When I started Waki leaks I dreamed of ability to make such models and renders but had no time to do it. With limited skill it would take sht loads of time for me

 You couldn't have been more right with the visualization thing. "Just bring your notebook, you can do a visualization of the whole bar while you drink a few beers here."

 @WAKIdesigns: grasshopper nerd? I'm not familiar with the term.

Just like drawing is a critical skill for architects but not the core competency, modeling is only one of many skills needed to be a good engineer.

Honestly, the most impressive part to me is not that he was able to make the models, but that he made this many to this level of detail. Even with quite a bit of skill, that's a lot of work! I would know, because its literally my job to design and engineer complex assemblies and I'm procrastinating on pinkbike because my Catia model hates me, haha.

 @adam102: ok, everything is great, one last thing, can we change the lighting of the scene from evening to day time ? We keep everything else as it is.

 @CaptainBLT: Hehe, yeah as I said in another comment, I carried parts from one bike to another (brakes, stem, gearbox, seatpost, pedals) because it takes so much time. The fatbike frame is a bit rushed (the topology is a bit ugly sometimes), the SLB is much refined though more classic, the JSB is the same but hardtail and the OTB is a totally different breed. The OTB was the one where I had the most freedom to play with luttle shapes, crease here and there.

I'm trying to reply to your comments but you guys type to fast :p

 @Will-narayan: I love it, this is my favorite pinkbike post in a while. Kudos!

 Thumbs up from Waki is a good thing.

 Thanks Waki . I’m actually in a reflection phase, on what to do next, and the world changing quickly doesn’t help. It took me too long to realize that I was stuck at my previous work where I was working pretty much on my own and not evolving, so now I’d see myself better as part of a team where I’ll do CG stuff but where I can learn new things and be part and contribute to the design, conceptual stages.
I have a very visual mind but the mathematics are long gone (I barely remember sohcahtoa…) so I don’t know if I could become an engineer now, though learning solidworks may be a good idea.
It’s as if I’m « in between », I like the visual/artistic aspect of things, but I need the physical constraints to channel it, « form follow function » all the way with a bit of compromise to make things look better.
I’m very bad at brainstorming, as it doesn’t make sense to me to say random things just for the sake of it, but after 15 minutes I may draw links between what has been said before and deliver an interesting idea.
As you say, when you learned something academically, you may not find new ways, for instance someone who learned music through years of music theory may be reluctant to suddenly use dissonant notes that don’t fit theoretically with the rest of the song, but someone who learned music by himself will play whatever notes he wants to play, even if they’re theoretically wrong.
Maybe I could come up with the weird idea and the engineer decides if it’s good or not.
But I also know that it’s « easy » to have weird ideas when there’s no financial constraints like on these bikes.
I hope recruiters can have the same reasoning as you and see that there’s more than just piling up countless amounts of polygons, and if so, that I can meet the expectations
You sum it up pretty well when comparing engineer and CG artists.
The problem is that apparently it costs as much (or even more) to do such a CG bike than to do a real world prototype, so these bikes look good but the outlet are scarce, it’s mostly needed when there’s a publicity stunt (like Canyon’s road bike).
Oh well, if I can’t make a living with these bikes hopefully I’ll keep doing these for fun

 @iantmcg: Design Engineering Manager here ( and holder of master's degree and two bachelors in engineering). Please don't speak for engineers. Some of us do have the skills to model something like this.However this is not what engineers are task to do. Engineering is the application of science, mathematical methods, and empirical evidence to the innovation, design, construction, operation and maintenance of structures and machines. In a large company there are product modelers that typically do the CAD work. And usually they don't do the Mapping of textures. There is usually another group that renders scenes for marketing purposes.

 You should send your CV to IKEA though...

 @WAKIdesigns: amazing how you find time to work in between posting on pb.

 @edreyes: Well, some engineers in the past did everything, and then a little bit more. It depends on the size of the company and the flexibility of managers...

 @Aptlynamed: and I get everything done on time. And I am a sought after resource, currently in in 3 projects, managing 2 of them, one of them is under construction whcih is double trouble. But the building site is next to dirt jumps so nearly every wednesday after the meeting and the visit on the site I go jumping. Living a dream aye? I only suspect that my wife hates me.

 Thanks Indeed it's a lot of time, hence why some parts have been carried over from a bike to the next one, like the saint brakes that were a PITA to make or the Hope stem (I'm probably not the only one to have a thing for CNC parts ?).
Actually a volumic software like solidworks may be better sometimes than messing with polygons with a surfacic software like 3DS Max.
As I had the FFB parts I could focus more on the frame the SLB. Then the JSB went quicker and I could try a few colors rather than just raw/stealth black. Then for the OTB it was different and I could mostly focus on the frame, with much more freedom as it's made of carbon.
Only problem though is that it appears to be about as long and as expensive to do a CG bike than a real prototype equiped with peripherals at OEM prices, so I'm not sure I can make a living of doing CG bikes, but at least it makes a nice portfolio.

 @Will-narayan: get solidworks and you will speed up the process for sure.. i work in the motorcycle world using solidworks and keyshot. i rarely go in to this much detail but have used some renders for marketing in the past.

 @doek: Seconded. I've used SolidWorks to render images for brochures, datasheets or presentations (school and work) and it's very intuitive. Compared to something like Creo, SolidWorks is user-friendly and relatively inexpensive compared to other CAD software suites. These renderings you've created are fantastic! I especially like the JSB Hardtail Here was a quick rendering I did for a school project where I modeled an AP Racing brake caliper (www.pinkbike.com/photo/16639404).

 That thing could even roll over gods dick

 You could come pretty close with a Foes Mutz

 @tempo: you aren’t kidding man, the mutz is this bikes little sister

 Imagine how bouncy that thing could be with tubeless + low PSI with the already 200mm of travel it already has

 you probably have, you just didn't realise they were renderings.

 Guillaume has, for sure, the french line attitude mostly graphically ;-)

 Yeah he totally deserves it! The SLB (not the simply loveleh brotherhood) :-) is a good looking bike! I’d love that! Great work fella!

 Haha, thanksfully, or regretfully, or somewhere in-between, my brain only works that way when imagining things, but when there's a physical risk it starts to imagine all the way things could go wrong, so I'm not really a skilled mountainbiker

 I think the last thing you'd want is the ability to stop that front wheel from turning.

 @Bob-Agg: hmmm.... think it depends on what exactly the hub is like.

 @iantmcg: I'd say it's more on how much you want to be smashed into the ground.

 @Bob-Agg: Yeah I guess the hub would be irrelevant, you'd have to feather the breaks just right so that you didn't launch yourself. Seems taking that thing down anything steep would be a total disaster.

 @iantmcg: Yes, the headangle is a bit slack for low grade slopes, but when things get really steep downhill I think the best may be to stand on the pegs, nose in the bars, ass up, elbows wide, heels down, and ready to jump of the bike if things go wrong.

 Looks like 260 was a typo and it’s 160mm. Look at the pics - it’s clearly smaller than the front rotor.

 Actually, only the cranks are Effigear on this one, the hub itself is indeed a fictitious mix of Chris Holm/Schlumpf and Rohloff speed hub (look on artstation there's a close-up of the hub).
Said differently it's a Rohloff speedhub mounted concentrically on the crank axle like a Chris Holm/Schlumpf 2 speed unicycle hub. That would be a pretty intricate gear mess, and because of this it uses huge bearings, consequently I had to widden the disk spider (also I understood why Rohloff do their own 4 holes disks, cuz' a regular 6 holes isn't compatible). The 203mm disk is overkill but the bigger the disk, the more clearance I had for the caliper, and so the spoke are even on each side (though this may flex quite a bit).
Also, I've seen that the disk is mounted outside of the fork on unicycle, and with the q-factor of the penny it would've been too dangerous (well it's not like the bike exists but still, I took leg burns or cuts into consideration :p)
I also thought about using V-Brakes but I wasn't in the mood for modeling one, and a big disk looks more stylish.
I cheated a bit by saying that the shifting would work with a simple trigger shifter rather than the 2 cables system of Rohloff.

 @Will-narayan: Oh boy, you could have gone with the regular Kris Holm/Schlumpf hub but brought Rohloff in there. Kris Holm usually mounts the brake rotor to the cranks, which is why they're on the outside. Bearing size doesn't really matter there as these are clamped by the unicycle "frame/fork". I've never ridden one of these with a disc brake though. I'd probably break it though I wouldn't be too worried about leg burns. The rotor spins at the same speed as the crank and especially as you're running pretty big rotors, they won't get too hot. I can imagine V-brakes aren't nice to model. Unicycles typically use Magura hydraulic rim brakes with the "trials mount" that does away with the brake boosters and all that. These are probably easier to model.

Cheers!

 Thanks Maybe I should have done video games then (I wanted to when I was younger), but I'd rather do something that has a purpose in the real world now. You're the one who mailed me about the FFB in red with Hope brakes ?

 Stanceworks went wank when the e9 went if I’m honest. The players & low n slow stuff has been done to death now. I’m bored shitless of it! Just upgrade the car to fast road / track spec and it’ll automatically be cooler as it can generate more pace!

 Foes actually made a very similar bike for a while, if you really wanna give it a go.

 The idea of the 24 inch fat wheels was to have more maniability than 26 inch fat wheels. But most opinions I've seen on plus tires was that they are not precise enough (hence why the 3" pretty much disapeared, and why everybody seem to prefere tires in the 2,5"-2,8" range), so I wonder how it would feel, probably not that great or we would have seen it already.
Now with fat tires and 200mm of travel, you may just need to calculate where the bike touches the ground every now and then while flying over everything in-between^^

 Thanks Unfortunately, unless the gearbox gets mass produced, it would make for a very expensive hardtail, probably more than most would be willing to pay for a hardtail.

 @Will-narayan: what gearbox is it a custom design also?

 @landscapeben: No the gearbox is real, made by Effigear for their own bikes under the brand name Cavalerie (I just added a little chamfer in 3D to catch light differently). They also did some gearbox for some original one-offs (currently), like the integrated shock DH bike by Resistance bike, and a bolt-on version of their gearbox for a full-sus by Starling cycles currently in production, keep an eye on those bikes if you like the gearbox concepts.

 @Will-narayan: Cool

 It's the same rotors with cooling fins and 6 bolts on all renders, the description is just pointing out that I mixed 2 different things : Either XT rotors with 6 bolts but no cooling fins, or XTR rotors with cooling fins but as centerlocks only.

 @Will-narayan: The OTB might be one of the only bikes ever to get a slacker head angle as it goes deeper into its travel Might just work!

 Pre-kids*

 The FFB doesn't have one, but JSB, SLB and OTB all have one (you can see it on artstation), I just make the whole renders without it as it's more an accessory than part of the bike.

 Think about the jacked triceps you'd get riding it though!

 Cool, I did it that way so you can change the belt without having to open the frame (I precise it cuz' it's only written on artstation), and so it gave a particular look to my bikes.

 @Will-narayan: i knew that. your design work is mental. you now have 6 followers. cheers

 Yep', carbon would make sense but there already enough carbon on the bike so I used a plastic mudguard for a bit of contrast and variation.

 Lol, thanks for pointing it out. What I mean is that while the disk is 2mm thick, the calliper is about 30mm thick, so as you don't want the calliper to be stuck between spokes, the further away from the axle the more clearance you have, so while a 160 or 180mm disk would have forced me to bring the hub's left flange inward, or the disk/calliper more outward, the 203mm disk allowed me to keep both flanges even at 60mm from middle line (or 120mm appart).

 @Will-narayan: more sense now. Good job btw

 It's not there so much to act as a suspension than as a way to give more clearance capabilities for the small wheel as the big wheel would clear 20cm obstacles with no problem while the small wheel would get stuck and stop you on the spot. But yes you would have to carefully set the rebound speed. But as the article says, while I've put some serious thoughts into these bikes, in the end they're not to be taken seriously, particularly the penny-farthing, maybe I should have done the fork steeper in fact, as the bike will get slacker at sag.

 test the OTB last you might die on it. There could be more to the rider rendering being a skelton than we think. I know back in the day when they raced those, guys would sit on the bars and race rather than the seat so they could jump off when going down hill.

 When I did the fatbike in 2014 the Effigear gearbox wasn't yet using a trigger shifter so it still has the old shifter with 2 cables, but now it does, so the JSB & SLB have a trigger shifter. The OTB too but the whole hub of this one is fictitious.

 @Will-narayan: the icing on the (pretty amazing) cake!

 Yep', this was a pun

 Working on it