Bike Tree and other links

Many of you may have already seen this bike tree concept, by Abhinav Dapke, elsewhere on the web. I like the rendering, so I want to pass it along too. I am not sure if the entire concept is feasible or not, but I do like the fingerprint entry/release idea. I use a fingerprint recognition pad everyday to get into my office building, and I think this is a good potential application of that technology. Like I said, I don’t know if it is realistic or not, but this is a pretty cool concept.

I don’t know how many wooden bikes I have mentioned on the blog, but a reader, Roberto, alerted me to another one. Follow this Gizmag link to see a few renderings of the curvy bent wood design, which took second place at the 12th Annual International Bicycle Design Competition. The passenger standing platform is interesting, but I am not sure I would want to sit on the plywood seat for very long.

On the subject of design competitions, The International Forum Design is taking entries for the Eurobike Award 2008 contest. Several categories have been announced and entries are accepted until July 25th. Read more at the iF design website and on this Treehugger post.

Finally, I have noticed a string of cycling related posts on Cool Hunting lately. Recently, they posted their selection of 12 bikes for girls, they mentioned Rapha cycling gear, and they posted about the Brooks Swallow saddle. Yep, bike content is everywhere these days; I think that’s a good thing.


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6 responses to “Bike Tree and other links”

  1. Robb Sutton (198) Avatar
    Robb Sutton (198)

    The tree idea would work great in a park setting. I would be worried if the fingerprint recognition went down for some reason…I wouldn’t be able to get my bike out.

    Great concept, but like you said in the post…I don’t know if it is realistic.

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Nice blog. Interesting material.
    About the bike tree. It’s an interesting idea, but I think it won’t protect my bike against rain, and that’s not good. Anyway Mythbusters proved that fingerprint identitifacion system can be hacked easily if you have the fingerprint on a celluloid or other material.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA4Xx5Noxyo

  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    do you know french Velobloc ?
    http://www.velobloc.fr/

  4. Tim Jackson- Masi Guy Avatar
    Tim Jackson- Masi Guy

    I am looking fr a crappy picture I took of a really cool sculpture in Taipei, near the new convention center, that is a bike tree sculpture. I’ll send it if I find it.

  5. bikesgonewild Avatar
    bikesgonewild

    …i’ve read two stories recently about bay area thieves who modified touch screens, one outside a bank & one inside a supermarket (yes, you read that right) w/ a miniature camera in place, in order to access peoples accounts…
    …i could see how the fingerprint id might work for a building that probably has some form of internal security but w/ people that determined to take what is not theirs, i wouldn’t feel secure w/ any bike of mine in one of those trees…

    …the wooden bike is both interesting & nicely sculpted, although who knows how practical it really is…but you’re certainly right about that seat…

  6. velo-phil Avatar
    velo-phil

    The Bike Tree thing has been started by a Swiss Professor around 2000. There are some Bike Trees stationed in Geneva outside the Swiss Touring Association and a few in France. On biketree.com there is all Info available, even though the Website is cleary out of date.

    From what I know the Company was heavily founded by a Swiss Bank, but still didn’t make it financially. I once wanted to launch a rental Service with Bike Tree in Zurich, but never found time and ressources.

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