Several people have asked about it, so before I get started with the post I want to let you all know that the finalists from the commuter bike design competition will be posted later this week. It has taken longer than I expected, but in retrospect, a couple of weeks before the holidays was probably not the best time to have ended the competition. Oh well, I am learning as I go along. Check back later in the week to see the entries that the jury ranked highest out of the 65 concepts that were submitted.

Pictured here is a 1980s Raleigh ad that came from a Road Bike Action Tech feature. If you were a cyclist in the 80s, check out the article. I remembered almost all of these ads, so seeing them all together was quite a blast from the past. If you weren’t yet riding in the 80s, I would still recommend checking out the old ads. I mean, you DO want to see the “bike of the future”, right?

I noticed a couple of bike design related links on Core 77 lately. The first is a folding electric bike project that was a student project by Truong Minh Nhat, a student at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture. The second Core post pointed to a Selectism interview with Ben Ferencz and Nathan Freeman of Freeman Transport, a company that I mentioned in a post a couple months ago, which makes fixie frames with S and S couplings. The photography is nice and the interview is pretty interesting, so I encourage you to take a look even if you are not typically interested in these types of bikes.

Since I just brought up a company that makes what could be considered hipster fixies, I will balance things out by mentioning the latest Bike Snob NYC post. He wrote a review of the Scattante Empire State “Courier Series” bike that Performance sent him to try out. Good stuff as always from the Bike Snob.

As long as I am throwing out unrelated links, I want to mention a poster that I saw in a recent newsletter from Ready Made. “Simplicity is the Key to Successful Living” is the message on the poster by Nick Dewar, which features a bicycle. In his description of the work, Nick says, “I can’t think of a single step that would change the nature of our society more than everyone abandoning their automobiles and cycling instead.” I couldn’t agree more. If you are interested, download a free copy of Nick’s poster from Ready Made.

Finally, I will point out the trailer for the film “Objectified”, which you can watch now on Gizmodo. This is not a bike related link, but as an industrial designer, this film is something that I am pretty excited about. I really enjoyed Gary Hustwit’s documentary “Helvetica” about typography and graphic design, so I am really anxious to see his take on my chosen profession. The world premier will be in March, so keep an eye on the website for screenings near you.