The VICTORIAN Smart Bike – Developing Ideas and Getting Ready to Pitch (and roll!)
6th April 2026
The start of the second week of the Easter Break means that the pitching session for this project is now less than two weeks away. Over the past week, I have focussed on delivering the content for the ‘Digital Comtent Creation’ module and have now (I hope!) completed this. Today my attention has turned to this project and I decided to crystalise my idea for delivering the speculative Victorian Smart Bike project.
I have decided to do this in the form of a ‘virtual’ manual for the bike. The idea being that this is the document that a new user will read first as they begin the ‘unboxing’ of their new bicycle. ‘Unboxing’ is a popular subject for TikTokkers and often appears on my ‘FYP’ (For You Page’ and I guess we all enjoy opening something new and shiny.
The chapters are as follows:
A History of 200 Years
Prologue runs through four distinct historical periods: the 1885 invention and its liberating social impact (especially for women), the long decline during the car era, the Climate Restoration era, and a closing philosophical section on why the Victorian aesthetic returned in 2085. It ends with a bridge sentence into the manual proper.
Welcome to The Victorian Smart Bike
Chapter 1 opens with the unboxing as a sensory experience, what the bike smells like, what it sounds like when you first lift it, then moves into the full spec sheet and a short AI film of the frame breathing.
Setting up Your Victorian
Chapter 2 treats setup as a ritual rather than a chore. Each of the five steps has its own diagram, and the chapter is seeded with hacks throughout, including the anticlockwise compass trick and the joy-state calibration tip.
Victorian Engineering in Practice
Chapter 3 goes deep on the four core systems: Quantum Routing (with the 7-variable diagram), the Empathy Saddle biorhythm tracking (including the family synchronisation visualisation), the Atmospheric Energy Array (with audio), and the SVN social network with its Emotional Weather Map.
Advanced Features
Chapter 4 is the most media-rich chapter; three AI images for the Consciousness Frame mood states, a temporal layers composite, an indoor/outdoor transition video, the full Hacks section, and five written Victorian Butler notifications including one audio clip.
Family and Community Riding
Chapter 5 covers family riding across four hardware configurations, the Emotional Load Distribution system (told through a narrative vignette), age-adaptive features for children, teenagers and elders, and the Wonder Credits system with its dashboard mockup.
Features they said were IMPOSSIBLE (as recently as 2026)
Chapter 6 plays everything completely straight, deadpan, as if Temporal Tourism Pedals and a 42%-gravity pigeon confusion bug are entirely normal product features. It ends with the Tadej Protocol Ultimate – and the final paragraph of the whole manual.
(Image: My first AI generated pictures of The Victorian Smart Bike created with midjourney in January 2026)
(Image: Second Generation of The Victorian Smart Bike AI generated with Google Gemini)
Next Steps
Having established the flow of the ‘story’ of The Victorian Smart Bike’, I wanted to create a platform in which to store the content that I create in a modern, indeed post-modern, setting which fits the 2085 era. In class, Emily has suggested the use of a website and while I thought this route was likely to be beyond my level of skills, I felt that this would probably be the perfect solution as a website is particularly relevant to this speculative product and is the most-likely platform to be sustainable into the future 60 years hence. But, I have no idea how do create a website so took this as the first step on this project. In a sense, I am working backwards by seeking to create the ‘completed’ work and then looping back to create the pitch document once I have made some progress.
I began by creating a prompt for Claude AI and copying in all of the ideas I have developed to date and the above chapter outline:
“Please review the attached project brief. I’d like you to create from this a step-by-step project which takes the ideas from the page into a digital media project. The basis concept is that I will create an online manual or user guide for The Victorian Smart Bicycle. It should have a prologue and six chapters which include an introduction, how to set up the bicycle, what it can do, it’s most advanced features with small, interesting details and hacks in each chapter. It should include – at the start – a history of the bicycle going back to the invention of the safety bicycle in 1885. It should include the little tips from “Virtual Tadej Pogacar” and details of what should be in each chapter. The chapters can include text, photography, video and any other creative media that I can reasonably learn to use over the next five days. The final piece of work should be ready by the end of this week.”
Claude AI gave me the following answers:
“The plan gives you a seven-chapter online manual structured around a five-day sprint (my window to complete this work – at least to pitching stage). Let me walk you through the key thinking behind it.
Structure rationale. The Prologue handles your bicycle history requirement as a proper standalone piece before Chapter 1 — this gives it the weight and depth it deserves rather than squashing it into an introduction. Then Chapters 1–6 move logically from vision → setup → core use → advanced use → family/community → the gloriously absurd impossible features.
On the Tadej tips. Each chapter has a Virtual Tadej Pogačar quote built into it — short, aphoristic, delivered with the deadpan authority of someone who has won the Tour de France twice. For the actual manual you might render these in a distinctive box style (brass-coloured border, small cycling icon), and if you have time, a 5-second AI video of a Tadej-style figure saying the line would be brilliant.
On your five days. Monday is your writing and research day — getting all the text drafted first means every other day is about enriching it, not scrambling for content. Wednesday is your most ambitious day (AI video generation), so if Runway or Pika is being slow, Luma Dream Machine or Pollo.ai are your fallbacks — you already know all of these.
On the site itself. Notion published to the web is actually a strong choice here because it handles mixed media cleanly, looks clean without CSS knowledge, and is free. Wix gives you more visual control if you want it. Either can embed YouTube/Vimeo clips, Canva graphics, and SoundCloud audio without friction.
Would you like me to help with any specific part of this — drafting the Prologue text, writing the Victorian Butler notifications, generating Firefly prompt scripts for the AI images, or building a content template for the site?”
I asked Claude to help me with building a content template and it returned with a suggested HTML template and that I should copy this into either:
“Option 1: Netlify Drop (Fastest — 2 minutes, no account needed)
This is the easiest thing in existence.
- Go to netlify.com/drop
- Drag your victorian-site-template.html file onto the page
- Netlify gives you a live URL immediately — something like random-name-123.netlify.app
- Share that URL for your submission
That’s it. No account, no setup, no code. The site is live. When you add images and update the file, just drag it again.
One catch: rename your file to index.html before you drop it, otherwise the URL will have the filename in it.”
OR:
“Option 2: GitHub Pages (Slightly more setup, but gives you a cleaner URL and lets you update easily)
This is worth the 10 minutes if you want to keep updating the site through the week.
- Go to github.com and create a free account
- Click New repository → name it the-victorian → tick “Add a README file” → click Create repository
- Click Add file → Upload files → drag in your renamed index.html
- Commit the file (just click the green button)
- Go to Settings → Pages (in the left sidebar)
- Under “Source”, select main branch → click Save
- GitHub gives you a URL: yourusername.github.io/the-victorian
Your site is live within about 60 seconds. Every time you update the HTML file, just upload the new version the same way.”
I opted for ‘Netlify’ and created a website for the project:
https://thevictoriansmartbike.netlify.app/ (this website is live and can be accessed from this link.
Frankly, I am unsure as to how I will develop this website from the skeleton it is currently into the manual which I am proud to present but I will – with the support of Google, AI and ARU – work it out. Like the Digital Content Creation module where video editing to any decent level was beyond my current skill set, I think this presents an ideal opportunity for my storytelling ability and untapped creativity to work alongside modern technology to create something, if not unique and special, then at least of good quality.
Populating ‘The Manual’
I have looked at tools I might use to populate the manual and have identified the following possibilities:
AI Image generation: Adobe Firefly, Canva AI, Google Gemini, Ideogram – use for product concept art, Victorian-futurist illustrations. I have used all of these tools – except Ideogram – before in this and previous projects.
AI Video generation: CapCut, Runway Gen-4 (free credits), Luma Dream Machine, Pika 2.2, Pollo.ai — 5–10 second clips per feature. CapCut has proved a revelation but I am keen to keep growing and developing my knowledge and experience so I will attempt to use other tools. My last attempt to use Runway – for this module in semester one – was not a success but I feel my experience of these tools has improved giving an opportunity for better results.
Infographics & diagrams: Canva, Adobe Express- timeline, spec sheet, feature maps, family configuration diagram. This is new territory for me, I’d like the manual to have the look and feel of something a manufacturer would actually produce so it will be a useful challenge.
Audio / voiceover: ElevenLabs (for Victorian Butler voice); record my own narration via Audacity or Podcast platforms. I have used ElevenLabs and Acast before in a rudimentary way and look forward to making better use of the on this ocassion.
Archive photography: Own photos and screengrabs over the years and Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress (loc.gov) also Google for copyright-free Victorian cycling and bicycle images. Checking my own Google Photos I have many hundreds of photos of bicycles going back ten years or so. Not all are vintage or have the right vibe for this exercise so it will certainly have to make use of these tools.
Tadej Tips: Each chapter has a Virtual Tadej Pogačar quote built into it, these come from my imagination as a fan of ‘Pogi’ and will be created with great respect someone who is a multiple winner of the Tour de France and numerous (every?) other major cycling race. I might create these in a distinctive box style (brass-coloured border, small cycling icon), and if there is time, a 5-second AI video of a Tadej-style figure saying the line would be brilliant.
In the next post for this blog, my plan is to begin the work of developing the chapters into a little more detail – the idea is that I will work through the chapters in order but that may not prove possible.
I think I may have enough information now to start an outline of my ‘pitch’ of this project and will look at this along side the work of expanding this speculative idea into (virtual) reality.
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