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From YourSITE.com Columns Those who own the cars or even lust for them can easily tell you that Audi enthusiasm is a lifestyle as much as any other. While most reading this website enjoy the finer things on four wheels, watch or take part in motorsport, go on a roadtrips, tinker with their cars or simply talk about them with their friends, it becomes increasingly obvious throughout the summer months that there are just as many out there on the highway who prefer a lifestyle based on transportation of the two-wheeled variety. Hit a popular summer locale like Myrtle Beach, SC on the right summer week and you might be overrun by enthusiasts on Harleys and it’s hard not to get caught up in the growth of the cycling sport with Lance Armstrong going for his seventh win at the Tour de France in the same year Tom Kristensen took another French title for the seventh time at the wheel of an Audi R8.
First we’ll look back at Audi’s history. Brands that were part of Auto Union like DKW and NSU have a rich heritage of bicycle, scooter and motorcycle manufacturing and racing. Visit Audi’s Museum Mobile in Ingolstadt and you’ll find some pristine examples, but they weren’t just for Germans. Peruse mainstream auction websites like Ebay and you’ll periodically find examples in varying degrees of condition for sale throughout America even though they haven’t been built for decades.
So what if Audi still built motorcycles? We found one independent designer who penned a personal design project around that very idea, creating a modern-looking sportbike using minimalist design for a sleek-looking motorcycle that wouldn’t be too much of a stretch of the imagination to envision coming out of Ingolstadt.
More in the here and now, Audi is building their own bikes of the non-motorized variety. These high-end bicycles haven’t gained much of a presence in the United States, but the striking creations from Audi’s design studios are still interesting to behold. We take a closer look.
Maybe not built by Audi, but certainly in the spirit of quattro, we traveled to Philadelphia to the loft-office of Christini – a progressive startup developing all-wheel drive for two-wheeled vehicles. As head engineer and president Steve Christini shared with us, the company is currently building all-wheel drive bicycles and experimenting with several prototype all-wheel drive dirt bikes that will most likely take the motocross racing scene by storm just as Audi did to rally back in the ‘80s. Even better, we spot an Audi Cross Pro bike frame hanging on the wall in their workshop – not exactly something you can just pick up in the USA.
The bikes themselves are cool, but in the end, much of the lifestyle is about the ride and the riders. We heard from a source at Champion Racing that driver Frank Biela and driver/chopper enthusiast J.J. Lehto planned a cross-country cruise from their ALMS event in Lime Rock, CT to Sears Point in CA. We caught up with Lehto following the 3,000 mile plus ride while he was prepping for his race at Sears Point and got the lowdown on their long trek and asked him a bit about his love for choppers. If you’re a regular reader of Fourtitude, then you know that in addition to an insatiable appetite for Audi news that we share with you, we also like to mix it up a bit – exploring the atypical side of the Audi enthusiast lifestyle. I hope you enjoy this interlude of the two-wheeled variety that we’ll be exploring each day next week with you, and I thank Audi of America’s North American A3 campaign for sponsoring the series and making it possible. © Copyright 2004 by YourSITE.com |
