Making Headlines
A New Spin on Road Bike Frames Smooths Your Ride
POPSCI | Gadgets - Posted Aug 16, 2011
Shock waves travel in straight lines, so when most bikes hit potholes, the shocks run through the frame and into the rider. One way to avoid the discomfort that can cause is to channel those vibrations onto another path, as the Tortola RoundTail road frame does.
THE TECH When this bike hits a bump, shocks are transferred into two hollow steel circles, which replace the typical rear triangles. The hoops force the waves into a spiral, where their energy dissipates. In the lab, the RoundTail cut vibration 50-fold.
Back to the drawing board
Gear | In Depth - Published Aug/Sept, 2011
It's pretty tough to get your product noticed ina sea of artistic and creative bike designs, but Lou Tortola was able to garner plenty of attention at the 2011 San Diego Custom Bicycle Show. Tortola, who was born in Italy but now calls Windsor, Ontario home, has invented a new bike frame design called the Roundtail.
You'll either love or hate the way it looks. The bike frame has a traditional toptube, downtube and headtube, but instead of a typical rear triangle consisting of a seattube and seat and chainstays, the Roundtail uses two parallel rings.
Bicycles are getting artsy smartsy
By Roy Wallack, Gear, L.A. Times - Published May 23, 2011
Creative bicycles, long a favorite subject of student industrial design contests, are busting out of art college and onto the streets. This year, there's been an explosion of creative frame designs across the cycling spectrum — road, mountain, electric, commuter — that are nothing short of sculpture on wheels. And unlike a lot of artsy inventions that are good only for mounting on a wall, these two-wheeled wonders not only work but also offer some innovative functional capabilities not seen on bikes with the century-old diamond-shaped frame.
Pedal Redondo - Go Outside
Este ano, o canadense Lou Tortola apresentou um projeto que simplesmente pretende redefinir a concepção das bicicletas. Sua invenção, a RoundTail, é uma bike de estrada com traseira arredondada, em vez da tradicional estrutura triangular.
Segundo ele, a RoundTail não é só uma questão estética – mesmo porque alguns ciclistas poderiam achá-la uma bicicleta diferente, mas não necessariamente bonita.
CTV Segment: A New Type of Bike
A Windsor inventor and entrepreneur has taken the cycling world by surprise.
He has re-invented the conventional bicycle frame. The more streamlined design and much more comfortable ride is the talk of local cyclists.
The Outspoken Cyclist - Podcast 4/16/2011
Diane is back from her adventures at the San Diego Custom Show, and she brought with her a ton of interesting contacts, many of whom will end up on The Outspoken Cyclist in the weeks to come.
First among these is Lou Tortola who has developed a radical bicycle frame design that replaces the rear triangle with a pair of rings. Lou calls it the Roundtail, and he's with us in the first part of this week's show to tell us all about it.
Listen to Lou Tortola's live interview by Diane of The Outspoken Cyclist. Source | Play in Popup | Download
