Guilin Bike Stand by David Hu

I am traveling in China this week, and at the moment I’m watching the evening celebrations of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday on Qiandeng Lake from my hotel window in Foshan. I think it is about time to get outside for a closer look, but first it seems fitting to quickly share a design for a bike stand that was inspired by Chinese culture and art. David Hu, designer of the Guilin Bike Stand, explains;

“Since ancient times, Chinese people have regarded nature as their true home and many have paid tribute to its beauty and majesty through their art. One of the most symbolic of Chinese art forms is shan shui paintings, or paintings of “mountains and rivers”. Chinese folklore often depicted mountains and rivers as living beings, serving as the dwelling places of revered spirits and deities. The city of Guilin in southeast China was particularly famous for the masses of mountains that poke out from the earth amid low-lying clouds. This magnificent scenery is the inspiration for the Guilin Bike Stand, which also seeks to be “natural” with its environment, bringing to the space a sense of tranquility and restfulness.”

If you are interested, you can find additional pictures and a video demonstrating the product on David’s Kickstarter page. Now if you will excuse me, it’s time to shut down this computer to go out and see what all the excitement is about.

Posted

June 23, 2012

Concept

James

Tags:

bike rack, bike stand, China, reader submitted design

Comments

4 responses to “Guilin Bike Stand by David Hu”

Ballo

June 25, 2012

I can understand the attraction to aesthetics in this design but in my opinion it seems that has comprimised function and usablility. The kickstarter page makes it pretty clear that it will only work with 27″ OD tires – no large commuter tires, no 26″ wheels. Very restrictive for a showroom tool.

Reply
David Hu

June 25, 2012

Ballo: thanks for your concern. I honestly wish I could have done a one-size-fits-all design, but as you probably know, very few bike parts are universal across different sizes. And even if they cover a range of sizes, they can easily become unwieldy. Take stems as an example: there are some designs that will accommodate different handlebar diameters, but the range is limited, the construction is more complex, there are more parts, and as functional as they may be, many people still prefer to have a simplified (and perhaps lighter) headset that fits only the specifc handlebars that they have.

Back to the bike stand: if I made it adjustable for a wide variety of tire widths, diameters, front forks, etc., I’ll very likely have a stand that’s overly complicated to set up, use, and adjust. And even THEN, it still wouldn’t be right for ALL tire sizes. If this project is successful and there is demand for it, I’ll look into the commuter tires for the next iteration. Thank you again for bringing that up. Best, David

Reply
Cyklista Miejski

June 26, 2012

David Hu: better response would be IMHO: “Final version will be offered in three versions to accomodate all common bike sizes.” – after all the owner of the bike to be put on display using your magnificient holder knows the size of the bicycle wheels and from your point as producer it is not very difficult to bend two more different lengths of wire. I could do it with my bare hairy hands! Peace! 😀

Reply
David Hu

June 26, 2012

Cyklista: Trust me, I would LOVE to be able to say that. Unfortunately, being that I’m an independent designer, I don’t have the (financial) means to produce hundreds of each of the sizes in order to keep the prices where it is across all of them. You’re right: technically, it’s not difficult to bend wires, but the base also needs to change to accommodate the different widths of tires that cyclists use.

A good analogy is the protective cases for iPads–iPad 1 and iPad 2 may be very similar, but they’re still dimensionally different, and that means the case for one doesn’t fit the other. Therefore, producing a case for iPad 2 still requires its own investment costs, production volume, design time, etc. No manufacturer would be willing to produce, say, 1000 of one size for a certain unit cost and then only 100 of another size for the same unit cost. They would generally demand that I produce 1000 of each size and at this point, I simply don’t have those means. I hope I’ve made my situation clearer. I welcome more questions/concerns!

Reply