Idea:
Cheetah/Zipp style frame, though most of these ideas can be applied outside of triathlon bikes.
Single Sided fork and rear stay/seat stay (more aero, better for fixing flats)
Internal, hydraulic or electronic drum brakes within hubs (batteries recharge while wheel moves and can be recharged to max)
Could take it a bit further - have just the front, or both wheels as Hubless Wheels (google image search hubless wheels) Eliminates spinning drag! braking for these wheels could be electronic wedge/drum style brakes within rim, say 3-5 different wedges/drums around rim to accomplish this. Deep rims could provide room for these internals.
Internal continually variable shifting (like NuVinci) but within the bottom bracket - electronic shifting. R shifter shifts up, L shifter shifts down. Recharges while you pedal and can be taken out to be completely recharged. Bottom Bracket Spindle 100mm in diameter and spins around shifting mechanism within - super stiff, super low Q factor. Crank arm starts off super wide (side view) and then tapers down narrow. Nice to have powermeter and Rotor RS4X incorporated in a super aero package. Use CNT carbon technology to lighten/narrow up the RS4X unit. ceramic everything for bearings and cups.
No chain, wound carbon fiber drive shaft through chain stay. BMW style. catch/ratchet mechanism at both of ends of drive shaft. one end for the crank, the other for the outside parameter of the hubless wheel.
Computer up front with the following options:
Left thumb button - use computer mode
Right thumb button - Select
Shifters for going up or down through menu
Can manually shift or can choose 3 options in the order of your choice:
Wattage, heart rate, cadence: the computer puts you in a gear that best keeps you at either a selected wattage, heart rate or cadence. So say you select that you want to be in a gear that lets you stay at 300watts, 160bpm HR and 95rpms. If you selected that cadence be your first priority, if you fall below or go above 95 rpms, the gearing changes with first preference to get you back to 95rpms over your goal wattage and heart rate. and the same can go for heart rate and wattage being first.
Last idea: have an option on the computer that allows you to choose which adjustment you want to make while riding: seat angle, height or fore/aft, aero bar extension reach, stem angle/length (Look style stem). electronic cams to adjust internally. use compressed carbon (CNT) when ever possible, for internal gearing hub as well for weight reasons.
Final result - a bike that can be adjusted on the fly even while racing, can keep you in desired wattage/hr/cadence ranges, ultra aero with no external components, no spinning drag from the wheels. Some people may be anti-electronic, then use hydraulic. but, ultra lightweight electronic would be awesome, with batteries that can be easily extracted (from the non drive side of the crank, where typically there would be a crank bolt, but with the spindle being 100mm, the 'bolt' plate is 80mm+ and can be screwed off and the entire shifting mechanism along with the battery can be extracted, separately. with the spindle being around the shifting mechanism, the shifters communicate with this unit wirelessley but from a wire that runs down the main tube/down tube so the transmission doesn't have to go far) No gears/chain could mean much narrower hubs. If the hubless wheel is used, this is not an issue.
This technology could benefit time trial bikes, road bikes and mountain/cx bikes where no external components would get damaged, wet, muddy or jammed.
damn, to work for a bike company with a budget!
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