A few Friday links

Next week, I will be traveling, so I have a lot of work to finish today. I would like to elaborate on some of the bike design content that I have seen lately, but in the interest of time, I will just pass along a few links.

Pictured here is a partially fuel cell powered concept bicycle for the Italian motorcycle company Aprilia. It was designed by Sweden Design, a design group based in Hong Kong that is a collaboration between 3 Swedish design firms. This picture came from the group’s website; check it out for more info.

Alberto Villareal, a designer at Lunar Design, won a red dot award for his bike helmet concept that features two LED light modules that snap into the helmet. I heard about this on Lunar’s podcast, which I would recommend to anyone interested in design

Cool Hunting posted their top 5 bike products of the year. These probably wouldn’t be my top 5, but the post is worth a look, so I’ll pass the link along.

Finally, last weekend, I took a camera along for a ride on my cyclocross bike. You can check out some of my pictures, tagged “onthebike” on my Flickr page. As I was riding and taking a few pictures, I thought it would be neat to have a tripod style camera mount with a tube clamp on the other end. I like the idea of being able to fix a camera to the top tube and take pictures of the trail or road ahead with the handlebars included in the shot. I don’t think a product like that exists (and I really doubt there is a market for one), but I might try to rig up something. Has anyone tried anything like I described. If so, I’d love to see the resulting pictures.

Posted

January 5, 2007

James

Tags:

aprilia, design, flickr, lunar

Comments

9 responses to “A few Friday links”

Chris Jennings

January 5, 2007

I have a picture that I took as part of an assignment for the paper I work for. I ended up using the top of a monopod, a hose clamp, and half a paint roller handle. I mounted it all near the seat on the top tube and used the intervalmeter on the camera. I think it was set to take a picture every 30 seconds. I did a Two mile lap with the camera taking pictures the whole time and only had one or two that I liked. I looked, but could not find it right away. I’ll send it if I do.

Reply
Fritz

January 6, 2007

James, I’ve also been experimenting with using hose clamps and brackets to have exactly the kind of view you write about. Like Chris, I haven’t been very satisfied with the resulting photos and videos.

Reply
Emily

January 8, 2007

The only photos I’ve taken whilst riding I held the camera up in one hand – not a very safe thing to do in a bunch…

Are your photos hand-held? I’ve imagined an attachment like you describe for bike and camera before too, but have never attempted it.

Reply
e.

January 8, 2007

camera rig using pro-cinema equip.

mafer clamp can mount to frame, stem, forks, bars, etc.

flex arm with threaded end for tripod screw mounts to mafer on one end, camera on the other.

works great with helmet video cams like the viosport rig, as well as digital still cameras.

onward.

Reply
e.

January 8, 2007

oops – forgot to say, the flex arm allows you to position the lens so that bars, wheels, etc – whatever you want basically, is in frame.

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James

January 8, 2007

Thanks for the comments; I assumed some of you had tried a set-up like that.

Chris, thanks for your input. I also took quite a few shots to get a handful that I liked, but I thought that a fixed mount might give me better results

Fritz, I should have known that you tried something like this. You have some good panda portraits on Flickr.

Emily, yes my pictures were taken with the camera in one hand. I used a little point and shoot that fits in my jersey pocket.

e, thanks for the tips. The flex arm is a good idea.

Reply
Tom

January 15, 2007

Any more information on that Aprilia bike?

Reply
James

January 15, 2007

Tom, I don’t know any more about the bike than what is in the post. You can see an article about the designers in the Jan/Feb issue of ID magazine. The bike is pictured there, but not much is said about it.

Reply
LatentE

February 14, 2007

I’ve been doing bicycle mounted photo shooting for a few years now. I use it for night shooting in place of a tripod. The weakness in the setup isn’t the mount but the bike stand quality. In the wind the setup is too shaky. I use a Bogen Super Clamp with two ball and socket heads to give more flexibility in camera positioning. Cullmann also makes a nice clamp mount that’s more like a carpenter’s wood clamp with extendable jaws on a flat backbone. Unfortunately because of that quality it tends to vibrate loose while riding.

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