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Things Come Apart - bicycleHow many bits make up a bike?
Eight hundred and ninety-three, apparently.
The image above is from a series produced by Canadian photographer Todd McLellan showing everyday objects reduced to their constituent parts. The bike in question is a 1980s Raleigh, and McLellan has also dismantled a fire extinguisher, a bedside clock radio, a typewriter, a chainsaw and a host of other familiar things. The book of the images, Things Come Apart, is published by Thames & Hudson and will be available soon.
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
Latest Comments
- levestane 1 sec ago
It is interesting to wonder what the balance is; how much cycling reduces climate impact (replacing car journeys etc) and how much adds to climate...
- matt-p 2 sec ago
Some super logic by the counciller.......
- slc 6 min 24 sec ago
Plus, it takes just one bright spark with a drill to turn water-filled barriers back to the easily moved state.
- chrisonabike 13 min ago
Well the threat of theoretically * "losing your licence" - even for a short period - is to many "cruel and unusual punishment". Akin to e.g....
- Steve K 20 min 31 sec ago
Gosh, I thought I was a late comer to this
- thax1 1 hour 33 min ago
I managed to break the chain link on mine. (I assume it's the same product, mine came as part of a rather snazzy Birzman toolkit)....
- thax1 1 hour 37 min ago
Good review. I like to see the full range of 'award stars' in use to differentiate between good and 'meh' products. Same with the Ribble Allroad...
- brooksby 1 hour 44 min ago
I was under the impression that “unbalanced investment from Arab countries” is having a not necessarily good impact on pretty much every sport.
- brooksby 1 hour 51 min ago
Very true....
- brooksby 1 hour 55 min ago
Like going to a cello lesson?
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10 comments
It's a steel frame right? So a bit of heat applied to the lugs and hey presto - 15 more bits.
I still think a good quill stem is one of the most beautiful things going.
On a bike of that vintage, well over half of those 893 parts come from just one - the chain. 570 parts roughly.
if your going to dismantle the saddle why not the frame and fork? seems an odd thing to do.
No matter how i put it back together I guarantee there would be 4 screws left over who's purpose would only become apparent after the first mile!
Why three saddles though?
Base, foam and covering I think
Wow - I love stuff like this, it shows you all the beautiful thought and engineering that goes into even the smallest piece.
I bet the photographer has got an amazing tool kit, too!
Awesome.Imagine how long it would take to build the bike back up from that picture!
The real question is whether there would be anything left over when he'd finished!
"Hmm, what does this bit do then?"