Bicycle models

in the 2003-2004 catalog from academy there's a racebike in 1/8 scale, the leisure bike sprinter nr. 1540

I guess if I could find the wheels then the rest could be scratch built. The hard part would be converting a figure.

I've seen that Tamiya kit but hoped I could find something a little more modern and larger. A pre-war diorama of the tour would be a great idea though too!

The 1/12 scale bikes were released quite a while ago. You'd need to do some significant modification to get them to 2004 tour standards. Perhaps the most dificult would be the lower number of spokes and the aero style rims which are lighter but "taller" than the one modeled. You'd also need to modify the shifter/brake levers since these are now combined on this level of competitive bike. The one modeled had shifters on the downtube. Now if you were to do the time trial bike, you'd be scratcbuilding just about everything.

Hello, Adam,

I have also thought of doing this kind of project. May I suggest the following:

1) Tamiya 1/35 WWII German Soldier and Bicycle set #35240 ($9.00) (you get 2 bikes and three figures)
2) Aber photo etch set #35097 ($14.00) (brass wheels, and other nice details for both bikes in Tamiya kit).

I know the scale is in 1/35, but these sets can be converted easily, and there is a ready supply of 1/35 heads and conversion parts easily available for the project. I have both of these sets, and they are quite nice, and at a total cost of less than $25.00, it is nicely affordable.

I plan to detail one the Tamiya bikes as the WWII version a WWII soldier, but the other will likely be converted into an early Tour De France racer.

Regards,

Robert Merz

QUOTE: Originally posted by Adam Yurkiw Does anyone know of any kits in a popular scale ie 1/12 of a road racing bike and rider. I want to do a model of the tour de france and haven't seen any on the market. Thx Adam

Gunze Sangyo used to do some nice detailed racing bike kits in the high tech series, haven't seen them for oh, 15+yrs though.

Thanks. I've never really seen anything suitable for such a project but it never hurts to look around.

Sorry, I only know of kits for the Bikes themselves, none with a rider.

A few companies like Fujimi and Gunze do them, but they seem to come and go randomly.

Here is a list of 4 1/8 scale kits from Fujimi:

http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist.cgi?Series=MTB+Series&Dis=2