What IS that thing? Enertia Mystery Bracket.

I was going through some pics from the Brammo Boys’ visit to the Pearl District of Portland from a couple weeks ago:

Reserved Parking

and this:

Attracting a crowd

. . . when I came across this image:

Enertias at Public Charging Station

I saw something a bit odd:

Hmmmm.

. . . and zoomed in:

What IS that?

To me, that appears to be some sort of bracket, maybe for an iPod.  The only reason for what some might call an obsessive examination of photos, is because I suspect it is related to the post on Plugbike.com last week regarding why Brian Wismann, Lead Designer at Brammo, might have visited Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Is this a sign of iPod integration?

My requests to @brammodesigner (Wismann) on twitter for some closeup pictures of the handlebars of his white Enertia have been ignored.  Oh sure, he’ll probably say he was too busy to reply due to the whirlwind trip from Beaverton to Bologna, Italy, where he joined Brammo CEO Craig Bramscher for dinner at the Ferrari Ristorante.

We’ll have to wait and see what the eventual response from Brammo about the mystery bracket might be.  Until then, join me in assuming it’s evidence of the soon-to-be-released killer app that will allow each rider to customize his or her power settings.

Today’s Pedantic Musings:  Bologna, Italy, is the location of Marzocchi, the manufacturer of the suspension system used in the Enertia’s forks.  A 2.5 hour drive from Bologna to Bergamo, Italy, will take you to the  home of Brembo, the manufacturer of the brakes used on the Enertia.  After a rousing day at Brembo, perhaps Craig and Brian will return to Bologna and enjoy the culinary delight that takes its name from this picturesque town.

It has a first name: O-S-C-A-R . . .

Brammo + Nike = NEW SHOE! Nope.

As I said/tweeted to @skadamo, his blog, Plugbike.com, has been kicking my ass this week.  Here’s a link to his post filled with conjecture and hypothetical musing about why Brammo might be visiting Nike this week:

Brammo + iPod Rider Community In Planning?

It’s all based on this tweet by @BrammoSays:

The Brammo boys (head of design and mechanical engineering) make a trip to Nike for a product development presentation at Nike HQ on Friday

I put two and two together and just figured it had something to do with shoes.  Okay, for a moment, I thought that Brammo might by outsourcing the manufacturing process to Chinese prisoners or Bangalore children, but then I remembered that they are all about “saving the world two wheels at a time,” so I quickly dismissed that idea.

Plugbike put two and two together and came up with iPods and Nike’s application to track your morning jog.

And he even used a post I wrote a while back about the Dashboard application.  He’s crafty, sly, and not to be trusted.  Okay, actually he’s smart and good looking and smells like a man.  Or so I hear.

ANYWAY… I think he’s probably right about that whole “track your ride” idea.  Brammo has been talking about this sort of thing for a while.