Bicycles and space aren’t the most obvious bedfellows, but they were brought together – kind of – in the mid-twentieth century with the futuristic Bowden Spacelander, an amazing-looking machine that is now a collector’s item.

Benjamin Bowden was the car designer and engineer responsible for the Healey 2.4, the first post-WWII 100mph production car, but like Mini suspension designer Alex Moulton after him, he was fascinated by the idea of improving the bike.

Bowden Spacelander (Bike Blue Classic USA)
Bowden Spacelander (Bike Blue Classic USA) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

In 1946, Bowden showed his Bicycle of the Future at the Britain Can Make It exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, to public acclaim and amazement.

His patent said he had just intended to “provide improvement of aesthetic and practical character” to the bike, but many features of the design that became the Spacelander were radical departures for the time.

The frame was made from two steel clamshell halves welded together into a monocoque, and the front fork and mudguard were all one piece. The prototype had a shaft drive, a suspension fork, self-powered lights, a horn, and a built-in radio.

Bowden Spacelander cranks (Bike Blue Classic USA)
Bowden Spacelander cranks (Bike Blue Classic USA) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

It was far too radical for the deeply conservative British bike industry of the day. Bowden moved to the US to seek backing for the bike, and over a decade later, in 1960, the production Spacelander was built in Michigan with a fibreglass frame and a more conventional chain drive.

By then, its swoopy lines, harking back to the streamlining and tail fins of 1940s and ’50s American cars, looked distinctly dated, and only 522 were made before the company went bust. Commercially, a bit of a flop, then.

Benjamin Bowden continued to work as a designer until he retired from coordinating designs for military tanks at General Dynamics in 1986, aged 79. He never really recovered from the failure of the Spacelander, even though he could take heart from the widespread use of pressed steel construction in scooters and mopeds that the Spacelander inspired. He died in 1998.

Bowden Spacelander badge (Bike Blue Classic USA)
Bowden Spacelander badge (Bike Blue Classic USA) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

Replica Spacelanders have been produced, while originals are hugely collectable. With so few ever made, they sell for thousands. Way back in 2013, we reported on one for sale on eBay for $42,000 (£27,000), although we’re not sure that anyone paid that high an asking price.

One of the big complaints about many modern bikes is that they look so similar to one another. If you want something more unusual, we can’t vouch for the performance but they don’t come much more distinctive than the Spacelander.

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