Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

Warp Drive Engin

Warp Drive Engin

One of the great joys of writing The Spoken is learning of the ingenuity and skill possessed by the metalworkers, fabricators and frame builders who create the beautiful bikes seen on these pages. An engineer who I’ve been astounded by is California’s Peter Verdone, who worked in conjunction with Drew Guldalian of Engin Cycles on a mountain bike with some impressive technical details.

Peter has an extremely analytical mind that is constantly searching out ways of improving the function and design of bicycles, motorcycles, firearms and skateboards. He has collaborated with Firefly Bicycles on their titanium dropouts, which were spotted by Drew, who contacted Peter to work on a new design for his own Engin frames.

Having toyed around with 650b mountain bikes since 2007, Peter incorporated the now-fashionable wheel size into his frame design, which Drew constructed to his high standard. The curved top tube enables the handlebars to swing completely around without obstruction, a handy facet for any hard riding bicycle.

The ‘Warp Drive Engin’ is named after the “hypothetical faster-than-light propulsion system” utilised by spacecraft such as the Starship Enterprise and continues Peter’s inspiration by highly evolved technologies (check out his PodRacerOne). A RockShox Reverb Stealth seat post was installed, matched with a Pike fork in the front.

If you look closely at the drive train, you’ll notice a couple of non-industry parts, an innovative, roller-less chain guide component composed of a machined inner and outer plate. Peter breaks down the theory behind the Warp Drive Engin on his website which, if you’ve any modicum of interest in engineering, should provide days of reading material.

Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin
Warp Drive Engin