Stelian Tchapkanski is an industrial design student who is working on a concept for an electric assist bike. His goal is to change people’s perception of the bicycle and to make commuting a fashionable alternative for those who don’t currently ride. In his own words, the concepts are “not designed to replace the bike, but are more as an alternative to the car.”

My first reaction, which I already passed on to Stelian, is that the rider position in both of these form study renderings is way too aggressive for a commuter-oriented bike. The average casual commuter wants an upright riding position that is much more relaxed than that of a racing cyclist. Stelian agreed with that comment and would like to get more constructive criticism from all of you who read this blog. He is going to start working on a full size mock up soon, so leave a comment if any of you have feedback that might help him with his project.

Bike Portland mentioned the 2008 IDSA Western District Conference in a post yesterday. Designers at the conference will take part in a workshop titled, Yield! Bikes and cars, can’t we all just get along? The participants will be presented with two design issues; improving on street parking and the design of complete streets. Read more about the event and the questions they hope to address at the Bike Portland post. I am looking forward to seeing some of the solutions they come up with in the workshop, and I will be sure to pass those along.

I just updated one of my posts from last week with info about the Zipp podcast, so check that out if you are interested in hearing more about the new 1080 wheels.

Finally, I want to close this post with something that is not design related. I have mentioned before that Masiguy is one of the first bike blogs that I started reading and is one of a handful of blogs that prompted me to start this one. Tim (aka Masiguy) is a great guy, so I was upset to hear that he crashed pretty hard at the San Diego velodrome the other night and suffered a concussion, broken bones, and other injuries. As you can see from the picture at BikeBiz, the crash was definitely a nasty one. If you want to help out with Tim’s recovery, his friend Blue Squirrel has set up a Pay Pal “get well” fund. To contribute, follow the link from his post, where you can also read updates on Tim’s road to recovery. Get well Masiguy; I’m looking forward to some updates on that blog of yours soon.