Naked Shimano Wingtip

Canadian Builder Sam Whittingham/Naked Bicycles was recently commissioned by Shimano to build an urban townie to showcase their new Alfine group (which is very cool btw). Besides just being a great looking bike, it really stands out for Sam's innovative chainstays. He's calling them "turnbuckle stays" and basically they are adjustable length through threaded plugs and female threaded sleeves which acts to space the stays from the dropout. So in short, Right-Tighty-Shorty / Lefty-Loosey-Longy (ugh, sorry). So it lets you tension a chain without sliding drops/track ends/ eccentric BB/ etc. and works off of the "spring" in seat stays. It's a pretty fascinating idea though, and really offers a good option for developing carbon-belt drive systems down the road too...






More info here.