While the auto industry collectively recovers, debates, and conducts other miscellaneous post-mortem Detroit Auto Show things; the Montreal International Auto Show is just, ahem, revving up. Today, Honda unexpectedly debuted the Gear concept: a compact car reportedly "inspired by fixed-gear bicycles." Honda says the Gear provides "the automotive answer for young, urban, Gen-Y lifestyles."
So, how can car design be inspired by a bicycle with a single gear, is in incapable of coasting, and in some cases feature no brakes? According to Honda the connection is more of a philosophical one, "It is simple and utilitarian, but also customizable, connected and full of personality," the Japanese Automaker said in a release.
Translated into non-marketing speak, Honda is trying to reach out to the young, city-dwelling demographic by creating a car not modeled after the practical reasons why people ride bikes?dirt cheap, simple, sustainable transport?but because a few hip neighborhoods across the country created a status symbol out of the unassuming fixie.
It makes some sense. In essence, people got into fixed-gear and single-speed bikes because they were contrarian?formerly only used by kids on BMX bikes, bike messengers, and Olympic track cyclists. Honda is trying to recreate that contrarianism in car?the fixed-gear bicycle of cars.
But one key point the Japanese automaker is missing is that it's much less expensive to achieve high-class status within the fixed-gear circles?or even cycling in general?than it is within automotive ones. Spend $800 on a high-quality frame, another couple hundred or so in parts, and for around $2,000, in terms of status, you've got the Ferrari-equivalent fixie. No matter how affordable Honda makes their conceptual Gear subcompact, $2,000 isn't going to go very far in the automotive world.
And besides, the very act of turning your bicycle into a status symbol is, at its very core, a response to the car as one.
This isn't the first time an automaker has tried to court cyclists, however. Within recent memory is the 1997 Volkswagen Jetta Trek, which is just a Jetta with a bike rack and a Trek mountain bike on top, as Volkswagen explains in no uncertain terms in their 1997 TV ad:
Another is the 2000 Ford Focus Kona: A brown-colored Ford Focus ZX3 with, you guessed it, a bike rack and a Kona mountain bike on top.
Truthfully, if Honda wants to grab the attention of a handful of trendy zip codes, it couldn't hurt to throw in some bicycle parts.
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