Panasonic Road

Frame / Size / Year:
Panasonic/54cm/?

Handlebars / Stem:
NItto/Nitto

Fork / Headset:
Panasonic/Tange

Front Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
HED JET60/Shimano 600

Rear Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
HED3

Crankset / Bottom Bracket:
Shimano 600

Saddle / Seat Post:
Turbo/Shimano 600

Pedals / Chain:
Time ATAC Carbon Ti/Shimano Ultegra

Shifters / Derailers:
Shimano 600

Brakes / Brake Levers:
Ultegra/Shimano 600

Gearing / Chainring / Misc.:
13-23 9s friction 

Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra Team Telekom, former pro bike ridden by Olaf Ludwig

Frame / Size / Year:
Corsa Extra, 58cm, 1995-ish

Handlebars / Stem:
ITM

Fork / Headset:
Campagnolo Record headset, Merckx Leader fork

Front Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
Rigida DP18 rim, Campagnolo Record hub

Rear Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
Rigida DP18 rim, Campagnolo Record hub

Crankset / Bottom Bracket:
Campagnolo Recod

Saddle / Seat Post:
Sella Italia Turbo Extra, Athena post

Pedals / Chain:
Campagnolo

Shifters / Derailers:
Campagnolo Record

Brakes / Brake Levers:
Campagnolo Record 

Eddy Merckx

Frame / Size / Year:
Eddy Merckx

Handlebars / Stem:
3TTT

Fork / Headset:
Campy

Front Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
Campy

Rear Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
Campy

Crankset / Bottom Bracket:
Campy

Pedals / Chain:
Campy

Shifters / Derailers:
Campy

Brakes / Brake Levers:
Campy 

Mini Launches New Folding Bike

After last year's electric scooters, the Mini brand continues to explore two-wheel territory, this time with a folding bicycle. The Mini Folding Bike stays true to the company's tradition, in the sense that it fits into the boot of almost any vehicle when it's folded. Not surprisingly, all Mini models can accommodate the small bicycle into their trunks.

The bike is aimed at customers who spend a lot of time in crowded cities with Mini claiming that it is “absolutely suitable for commuters and impresses in urban travels”. When folded, it can be taken free of charge on public transport.

Mini's bicycle features a light-weight aluminum frame and a simple folding mechanism that allows it to be folded and unfolded in a few seconds. The bike collapses along the crossbar and handlebars in order to take up a minimum amount of space. In addition, the saddle can be retracted and the pedals folded up, making it easy to handle.

The MINI Folding Bike weighs less than 11 kilograms (24 lbs) and is equipped with 8-gears and 20-inch wheels. It has a teflon-coated chain to prevent soiling caused by chaing oil, a gel saddle and mudguards that make it usable in the rain as well. The bike comes in matt black paint with silver highlights such as the Mini lettering on the crossbar, the brand logo on the handlebars and the British flag on the rear forks. The chain and the bell are painted in neon yellow.

The bike will be available from August 2011 from select Mini dealers and on the company's German online store for a price of €499 ($728).

Audi Wooden Frame Bicycles

Audi is joining a long line of car manufacturers that have reached out to bicycle specialists to create their own range of two wheelers. Being that the brand with the four rings is renowned for the use of aluminum in its cars, you’d expect Audi to employ the lightweight metal on its bicycle series. But that’s not the case as the Ingolstadt automaker teamed up with Renovo Design, a firm famous for its wooden frame bikes.

The all-new Duo bicycle from Audi sports a monocoque frame made of hardwood. According to the automaker, wood offers “the smoothest ride of any bike frame material thanks to its superior ability to absorb shock and vibration”. Audi says that the weight per cubic inch of wood is about one-fourth the weight of aluminum, meaning that the duo is lighter than most bicycle frames, adding that it also offers "equal or superior stiffness, durability, and toughness to an aluminum frame".

Other highlights of the Audi Duo bicycle series include a belt drive, aluminum and carbon fiber components, disk brakes and LED lighting, as well as woods selected to match the look of Audi vehicle interiors.

The series comprises of three bikes, the Duo City, Duo Sport and Duo Road, all of which are hand-made at Renovo’s Portland, Ore., studio. As you'd expect, none come in cheap as pricing for the three models (including shipping & handling) are set at $6,530, $7,350 and $7,460 respectively.

McLaren Create Venge Aero Road Bike

McLaren, a pioneer of carbon-fiber technology, which it successfully uses in Formula 1 and on its MP4-12C road car, has teamed up with U.S.-based Specialized Bicycle Components [SPC] for an unusual project: building the ultimate road bike.

Called the Venge, the race bicycle has an ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber frame made by McLaren Applied Technologies (MAT). Its engineers optimized the way the carbon was cut and applied, and improved efficiency by 10-15 percent by choosing the most suitable plies. As a result, the frame weighs less than 950 grams (2.09 lbs).

According to McLaren, this improvement is “more than anything previously seen in the cycling world,” with the Venge being “the fastest complete-performance bike in the world.”

“The S-Specialized + McLaren Venge project is unique. We paid no attention to the typical limiting factors and focused solely on producing the most advanced bike possible – Formula 1-style!” said Brad Paquin, composite design engineer for Specialized Bicycle Components.

The Venge will debut in the classic Milan-San Remo race this Saturday with Mark Cavendish, the 2009 Tour de France winner, sitting in

Find out more about the project by watching the video below.

BMW M Bicycle the Carbon Race

Initially created to facilitate BMW’s racing program, the Bavarian firm’s M Gmbh division gradually expanded its activities to include the development and manufacturing of the company’s sportiest production cars, and more recently, crossover and SUV models as well. Now, the M brand is entering new territory with the introduction of its first bicycle, the M Bike Carbon Racer.

The highlight of the bicycle is the lightweight carbon frame that has been developed in-house by BMW’s M division. The German company states that the frame is extremely light and stiff, absorbs shocks, and is absolutely corrosion-free. The bicycle also comes equipped with Shimano Ultegra gears and tips the scales at just 7.4 kg or 16.3 pounds.

The frame is finished in an anthracite carbon look, while the colored accents on the rims, handlebar grips, and saddle inlay are painted in the typical BMW M red color.

Prices have not yet been released, but BMW said that the M Bike Carbon Racer will be available from select dealers as well as online on the firm’s website from June 2011.