Friday, February 6, 2009

Dressing Up The New Trike

We've begun the process of fancifying the new aluminum trike- the lights in the previous article are part of that process. We're going for an Art Deco theme. An easy theme to go with since Art Deco and bikes go together like toast and jam. Think of all that chrome and curves and shiny bits and so forth on classic bikes and then realize it's Art Deco. I'll certainly take it over garish logos on every single surface.

As a first step we've put white wall tyres on the trike. Compare the photo below to older pics of the trike and I think you'll see it's already an improvement. Soon the trike will also have shiny fenders with killer lights mounted, and various other happy curvy bits. I'll need a little something extra to make it special... also the trike will need a name. What do you think? I'm thinking of going with Silver Fox.



Just as a side note I originally intended to go with Art Deco for the Brass Lion, but something about the high-off-the-ground profile of the Streetfox tadpole trike from Atomic Zombie that the Brass Lion is based on seemed kinda old-fashioned as in 1886 Benz. So I went Steampunk or Neo-Victorian.

As a second aside, I consider Steampunk and Art Deco to be fundamentally aesthetic opposites though they are both quite beautiful and concerned with craftsmanship and functionality as well as aesthetics. The fundamental difference is that Steampunk likes to see the working bits- let the guts hang out! Show us the gears, and the more the better! Art Deco likes to cover the functional bits with fairings and housings considering the guts to some degree to be unappealing, and certainly less aerodynamic.

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