Bicycle Design

Year: 2008

  • Chinese folding bikes

    My last post about commuter bikes for the masses generated some really good discussion from all of you. The discussion got me thinking- the “commuter bikes for the masses” concept would make a great design contest for the blog. I’ll let you know a little more about that soon, but start thinking about it now…

  • Commuter bikes for the masses- any ideas?

    It has been seven years in the making, but the bicycle commuter tax provision has finally passed both the House and Senate. President Bush signed it into law last Friday as part of the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” (read more about the Bicycle Commuter Benefits Act here, here, and here if you are…

  • Xtracycle LongTail Standard

    “The bicycle industry is entering a new age of bike design.” So begins the new Wiki page for the Open Source Xtracycle LongTail Standard. Xtracycle realizes that the demand for an open-source standard is increasing, so they put the basics of their longtail design online for anyopne to use free of charge. PDF downloads with…

  • Less bikes in China?

    Well, I don’t really know if there are less bikes overall or not, but I do want to point out an observation from this trip. On past trips to China, I have posted several shots of various bikes on the street, including pictures of hundreds of bikes outside of factories that I have visited. Don’t…

  • Cannondale Stealth

    I am getting ready to meet my co-workers for breakfast here in Dong Guan, but I have a good internet connection and a few free minutes, so I want to quickly pass along a couple of things. The latest entry in the Cannondale Design Sketchbook is the Stealth concept designed by Torgny Fjeldskaar and Erik…

  • Strida MAS Special Signature Edition

    I have time for one more post before my trip, so let me quickly pass a few more things along. You might remember when I tested a Strida 5.0 late last year. I liked the bike, but at 6’ 2”, I felt like I was a bit tall for it. That is why I was…

  • Traveling

    A few people have asked me if I was planning to attend Interbike next week. I wish I could be there, but I am flying to China this weekend for a product development trip. Since I will be on the other side of the world for a couple of weeks, I will have to follow…

  • Motorized long bikes

    There was a bit of long bike discussion on the blog recently in response to a couple of posts about the Fisher El Ranchero concept. Frequent commenter bikesgonewild was the first to mention that the El Ranchero would be “the perfect vehicle for Trek’s electric project.” After seeing those posts, a reader named Bob sent…

  • Eurobike Awards and a few more links

    I mentioned the G-max bike from Girs in a previous post. Coralie, an engineer who worked on the bike and documented its development in a blog, let me know that the G-max won a Eurobike Award 2008. Congrats to Coralie and everyone at Girs on the distinction. See the other bikes and products, including the…

  • A couple of new Bianchis

    I have seen a few interesting 2009 offerings from Bianchi on the web lately. Cyclelicious posted recently about the steel Vigorelli and also the Boron steel Pinella frameset, which is back in the line for 2009 after a two year absence. Bike Hugger posted recently about another steel Bianchi for ’09, the celeste colored Dolomiti…

  • Eurobike follow-up

    As I mentioned in my last post, Eurobike was bigger than ever this year. According to the latest email newsletter from the show, they had a record attendance of 36,800 trade visitors from 75 countries over the last few days. On top of that, over 18,000 people walked though and checked out the bikes on…

  • Eurobike opens today

    The big European bike show, Eurobike, opened today in Friederichshafen, Germany and, according to BikeBiz, the show has more exhibitors this year than ever before- over 930. Cyclelicious posted recently about the opening of the show, and you can check that post out for more information and for a multimedia presentation of random images related…

  • US Pro race photos

    I finally got around to uploading some of my US Pro time trial photos to a Flickr set. Pictured here are three shots of Dave Zabriskie, Tom Danielson, and Christian Vande Velde from the race on Saturday. I should be able to get my road race photos uploaded soon and I will update this post…

  • Tyler’s US Pro winning Fuji SL1

    It was a great weekend of racing in Greenville and I was extremely happy to hear the announcement yesterday that the US Pro Championships will stay here for another three years. By now, you have probably already read about how Tyler Hamilton outsprinted Blake Caldwell to win yesterday’s US Pro Championship road race in an…

  • Old or new

    Take a look at this bike. With its lugged steel frame, downtube shifters, threaded headset and quill stem, it looks like a 15 or 20 year old road bike, right? Actually it is a brand new 2009 model bike from Fuji (see a better picture here). A couple of people forwarded this to me after…

  • Way ahead of his time

    If you have any interest in mountain bikes, you should know the name John Finley Scott. Though he is not as well known as some of the other pioneers of the sport, J.F. Scott really was the first person to create a purpose built mountain bike. He built the “Woodsie” bike that you see pictured…

  • Friday links

    I started this week off with a solid design related post, but the last couple, about my track bike on eBay and the US Pro races, have ventured slightly off topic. To make up for the lack of design content, I will do one of those posts where I just throw out a bunch of…

  • The US Pro races are coming soon

    I can’t believe that it is already the end of August, but the US Pro Championship races are right around the corner. Just as I have for the past two years, I will be photographing both the time trial and road race and will post the shots to my Flickr account soon after the races.…