Year: 2013
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2013- The year in review at BicycleDesign.net
In keeping with the tradition started in 2009, it is time for a year end recap of activity here at Bicycle Design. For the first time since I started the blog eight years ago, readership was down a bit from the previous year (the blog had just 953,053 pageviews in 2013, compared to 1,236,847 in…
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eins.plus- a hybrid electric tricycle sharing system by Peter Kutz
Peter Kutz is a product design student at the Weissensee School of Art in Berlin. For his thesis project, he designed a hybrid electric tricycle called “eins.plus” (one.plus). Similar to the Mando Footloose hybrid electric, Kutz’s concept features a pedal driven generator that powers dual motors located at the rear wheel hubs. Because the design does…
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Two interesting bike documentaries in the works- The Outsider and Bicycle
If you are interested in bicycle design and innovation (and if you are reading this blog, most likely you are), there are two documentaries coming soon that you will definitely want to see. First is ‘The Outsider : Graeme Obree’s story, in his own words’ by David Street of Journey Pictures, a project that was…
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Transport commuter bike by David Hotard, Matthew Campbell, and Edwin Collier
A few years ago, Kevin Shankwiler, an Industrial Design Professor at Georgia Tech, contacted me about a bicycle design class that he was planning to teach. I put him in touch with a couple of the designers at SRAM, and they were happy to support the project by sharing their expertise as designers in the…
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A couple of bike products years in the making
It has been more than seven years since I posted about the sandwich bike prototype, designed by Bleijh Industrial Design, after it was spotted at the 2006 Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. It took a little time, but that concept is now in production as a flat pack bike that can be assembled at…
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“Design Behind the Bike” videos from The Open University
I mentioned The Open University’s “Design Behind the Bike” videos on Twitter last week, but the five part series is quite interesting and really deserves a post of it’s own. You can watch the first video in the series, History, in the frame above. Links to the other videos can be found here: Aesthetics (2/5)…
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Nested urban e-trike by Natacha Lesty
It’s been just over two months since I last posted here, and I am finally ready to get back to it. There are likely to be a few minor changes in the way I treat the blog going forward, but I won’t go into that today. Instead, I want to pass along a concept bike…
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Taking a break from the blog
If you are reading this, you probably know that Interbike is underway in Las Vegas this week. I started to write a post about it today, but I ran out of steam as soon I got started. That lack of motivation to post has been plaguing me for a while now (it is certainly not…
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The 2013 World Human Powered Speed Challenge
This week, I have been occasionally checking the results of the 2013 World Human Powered Speed Challenge taking place for the 14th consecutive year on SR305 outside of Battle Mountain, Nevada. This is always a very interesting event to follow, and I am glad that Graeme Obree’s participation is bringing it a bit of extra…
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Canyon Urban Concept Bike
Eurobike came to a close over the weekend in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and I have seen a few interesting concept bike designs from the show. One of my favorites is by German brand Canyon, well known for their race oriented roads bikes and the red dot award winning Speedmax time trial machine. The concept bike that…
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Bike sketches from 5 different designers
I didn’t get a chance to post anything last week, and this week is shaping up to be just as busy. Quickly though, I want to share a few sketches, created by five different designers, that caught my attention lately. Concept sketching is my favorite part of every new project (good because I have been…
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Semester Bicycles- Hextube bamboo composite frames made in the rural South
I was born in Alabama, and spent the first 18 years of my life there, so I was very happy to hear about a bike related project that is focused on creating jobs and better lives for people in one of the rural communities in the Black Belt region of the state. In the town…
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A handcycle mountain trike and a couple of student designs
I have been behind on posts here at Bicycle Design lately, but I want to take a few minutes today to pass along a few designs that were submitted by readers recently. In 2011, I featured the Forzer off-road handcycle by Marius Hjelmervik in a post. Designer Tom Bicher has been working on a similar…
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Graeme Obree’s new improved Beastie
Last year, I posted about Graeme Obree’s plans to attempt the human-powered land speed record in a prone position HPV of his own design. After his test run at Machrihanish airport in Scotland last year, the record attempt was delayed due to issues with the fairing on “the Beastie.” Now, Obree is back and ready…
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E-Trike by George Cooper
George Cooper is a recent Industrial Design graduate from the UK. For his final school project, he set out to design a human powered vehicle geared toward the majority of people who don’t currently cycle (that blue ocean that is mentioned here from time to time). His solution is an electric assist recumbent tricycle with…
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Congrats AeroVelo team!
I completely missed this news two weeks ago while I was traveling, but I saw today in a Bike Hugger post that the AeroVelo team finally was able to capture the $250,000 AHS Sikorsky Prize for human powered helicopter flight. Just over a year ago, I wrote a post about the team from Toronto and…
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New designs, old designs, velomobiles, and bike art
I was traveling in Asia the past couple weeks, and didn’t get a chance to post here at Bicycle Design. I do have a lot to pass along though, so today I will quickly share just a few of the links that readers have shared with me recently. I have shared Ilya Vostrikov’s bicycle renderings…
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Design Awards for bikes and bike products
The 2013 red dot awards ceremony and gala took place last week in Essen, Germany, and as usual, bicycles were among the many types of products that were recognized for design excellence. A couple of days after the ceremony, Yanko Design picked their top 20 product designs from the “Best of the Best” awards, and…