Revolutionary Venom Line or Elaborate Hoax?

Magnetically suspended rim? 2006 Specialized Viper? Hoax!

Alert readers will already have discovered for themselves that the story about the Specialized Venom line is an April Fool's type prank. Specialized manufactures some of the world's best mountain bikes, but it has no plans to produce futuristic bicycles of this kind.

Verdra H. Ciretop first wrote the report about the Venom Line as a prank for half a dozen friends in November of 2004. If you read the article closely, you will notice several obvious clues that it was a hoax, including these:

• The date: A press conference on November 31st? That's no more real than November 32nd is it? And reported on November 20th, before it has even happened?
• The publisher: "Loof Lirpa"? Doesn't that spell "April Fool" backwards?
• The pictures: Steering anyone? Can the front wheels on most of these bikes even turn? Steering anyone? Can the front wheels on most of these bikes even turn? And isn't the "Specialized Cricket" clearly labelled a Bianchi?
• The science: "...a magnetically polarized rim that is suspended inside the frame, where it floats inside a magnetic suspension field"? You didn't really believe this did you?
• The author: Isn't Verdra H. Ciretop the same reporter who told us about Bicycle Retirement Packages, Independent Magnetic Suspension, and Invisible Paint? We can't really expect to take his "Venom Line" any more seriously, can we? See for instance: http://www.mountainbiketales.com/verdra.htm
  http://www.mountainbiketales.com/Verdra2.htm

If you were duped, don't worry, you weren't alone. It seems that numerous people around the world actually wanted to believe that these bikes were real and were fooled anyway, including gizmodo.com, treehugger.com, bluecollarmtb.com, as well as many individual bloggers, journal users, and others.

The source for the pictures was first found at www.austinyellowbike.org. The actual creator of the pictures is concept designer, Scott Robertson, whose excellent work can be seen at his website drawthrough.com, including his bike rendering tutorial. Both Scott Robertson and Specialized only became aware of the prank recently, when it was publicized in a humor column by mountainbiketales.com. To see the real line of Specialized products, visit specialized.com.

Enjoy the joke, and have fun sharing it with others!

Posted Tuesday - 2005-08-16 - 15:03:16 EST
by Staff Reporter Verdra H. Ciretop in Toronto
All Rights Unreserved - Loof Lirpa Publishing
Text may be freely copied & redistributed

Verdra H. Ciretop is a freelance writer who enjoys writing humorous articles about his hobbies. As well as being an enthusiastic mountain biker, he is also a grandmaster in Stanley Random Chess.

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