In researching this story it didn’t take much digging to turn up a bunch of bicycles produced by car brands over the years. Just about all of them have given it a lash.
We turned up 25 without breaking a sweat. Everyone from Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini, to DeLorean, Hummer and McLaren. Many are just rebadged version of well-known, existing models, but others are clean-sheet in-house designs.
Either way, here’s out top five maddest pushies made by car brands…
Audi Sport e-tron
The Audi Sport e-tron mountain bike is the result of a collaboration with e-bike specialist, Haibike.
Released in mid-2016, only 100 were made, retailing for the princely sum of $23,600 (€15,300).
It boasts a carbon monocoque frame, and weighs in at 18.2kg; amazingly light for an e bike.
Technical highlight is Bosch's ‘Nyon’ computer system, running with the (Bosch) drive to monitor power management and auto gear shifts.
PG Bugatti Bike
Weighing in at five kg, and priced at $54,000 (€35,000), the PG Bugatti Bike is possibly the world's lightest, most expensive road-going bicycle.
Produced in partnership with Germany’s Pimp Garage, Bugatti claims the bike’s frame is “95 percent carbon fibre”.
Production was capped at 667 bikes, with customers able to choose from a range of materials and colours, to match their Chiron hypercars if they want to.
Honda RN01
Honda’s RN01 downhill mountain bike emerged in the mid noughties as a competition model for use in Japanese and North American events, as well as the mountain bike world cup.
Not available for retail sale, it featured a chrome finish and classic Honda wings graphics.
Total bike weight was around 18.5kg, the machine featuring a CVT-style gearbox, said to provide a huge number of gears. In fact, the design was so skunk works hush-hush that team mechanics would remove the gearbox from the frame so if the bikes were stolen the gearboxes weren’t.
And this paid off when two of the team bikes were stolen (without gearboxes). One was eventually listed on Ebay and was duly ‘recovered’.
Peugeot BK1 Concept Bike
If any car brand has a right to boast about its bicycle making back story, it’s Peugeot. It was 1882, when the first two-wheel, human-powered Peugeot was produced, and this machine, the Peugeot BK1 Concept Bike arrived in 2010.
The mesmerising, minimalist design uses an integrated gearbox housing rather than a conventional chain. The wheels uses a roller system rather than conventional spokes, and the frame consists of carbon and aircraft grade aluminium. Beautiful.
Spyker Aeroblade
Before Dutch sports car brand Spyker was busy trying to keep Saab afloat (in its dying days) it ran a handy side line in crazy bikes, and this is one of the them – the ‘Aeroblade’.
Produced in 2006 in collaboration with Dutch bicycle company Koga, it features a titanium frame and forks, with mudguards made of an aluminium glass fibre that's been coated with a carbon composite.
Only 50 were made, it ran a Rohloff 14-speed hub gear transmission, and the whole thing weighed 12.8kg. Note the Spyker logo imprinted on the chain cover, and orange tyres.
Price was $16,100 (€16,100), more than a decade ago!
Would you spend $54k on a Bugatti bike? Tell us in the comments.
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