Today’s invention is an adaptation of one submitted to my Inventors’ Inbox column written with Mark Sheahan.
Imagine a lean back-type bicycle in which the triangle formed by the frame tubes between steering head, seat and pedal axle (dashed) could be replaced by three tubes with a shorter total length (shown in red).
It turns out that there is some mathematics which allows this total length to be minimised (although the tubes themselves might have to be a bit wider).
(I tried to use this technique in laying down a garden path, but was overruled on aesthetic grounds).
I just discovered this similar, but later, design http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672445/11-of-the-worlds-hottest-bikes?partner=newsletter#9