I’m a man, yes I am and I can’t help but love…gawping at kit. By kit, read anything gadgety, mechanical, useful, playful, probably extortionately expensive and lower priority but more likely to make it into my home than food. Who needs to eat when you can have stuff? Of course, it has to be very beautifully designed, crafted with skill and, hey, if it has wheels, so much the better. This is Slow Living, after all.
The first two high performance road bikes from windsurf engineers NeilPryde, produced in conjunction with BMW Group design subsidiary DesignworksUSA, tickle all my boxes.
Launched to us public earlier this month at the Vattenfall Cyclassics, one of Germany’s premier cycling events, the Alize and the Diablo are the beautiful babies born of the marriage of Neil Pryde and BMW Group’s world-leading expertise in designing fast-moving stuff, from cars to yachts to aircraft, and of course windsurfs.
Credit here to the BMW blog for this nerd’s guide to the innovation that lies therein:
“The Alize focuses on aerodynamic performance through optimized tube profiling and an extended Kamm tail. The changing aerofoil profile along the length of the tubes manages the airflow specific to the aerodynamic characteristics of each element – frame, forks, wheels and components. The Alize incorporates a progressive Kamm tail profile in the lower 1/3 of the down tube, with the extended trailing edge morphing into a squared-off surface, enabling a more efficient transition from the down tube to the seat tube. “Using a Computational Fluid Dynamic modeling system, we were able to create a design that tricks the airflow to remain laminar around the downtube, seattube and rear wheel.”
You see, not just beauty but brains too.
If you fancy sliding one alongside the Jorg&Olif in your bike shed, pre-orders are being taken now on the NeilPryde website www.neilprydebikes.com. The Alize will set you back roughly $4000, depending on size and modifications, while the Diablo is a cool $4,400 approximately.
