I have mentioned Design*Sponge on this blog a couple times before. In a 2005 post, I referred to it as “one of my favorite non-bike blogs”.  Five years later that is still true, so I was really glad to see that all of the D*S posts yesterday were dedicated to bikes.

To kick off the bike themed day, Grace ran an interview with Julie Hirschfeld, owner of New York bike boutique Adeline Adeline. Prior to founding the shop, Julie worked in entertainment and fashion… and she definitely brings her background in design and aesthetics to the world of bike retail. It is great to hear Julie’s thoughts on bicycle style and trends; it really makes you understand why her classic bike oriented shop is successful in the U.S.’s biggest urban market. Next was a ‘best of bikes’ post featuring many great photos of bicycles in nicely designed interior environments. Design*Sponge closed out the bike themed day yesterday with a product roundup featuring over 55 bikes, bike-related accessories, and bike inspired home décor products. I really enjoyed Grace’s perspective as a self-proclaimed “cycling novice” and I hope we will see more bike content on her blog in the future.

Personally, I always love to see bicycles featured prominently on a blog or other media source that is not cycling related. Though there are more well-designed bicycles and products on the market now than ever before that appeal to customers who are not interested in “sport” cycling, the bicycle industry for the most part is still largely made up of bike enthusiasts designing and marketing products for other enthusiasts. The passion that people in the industry have for the products they produce is great, but posts like these at Design*Sponge (and the associated reader comments) provide great insight into a segment of the market that still has huge potential for growth (that Blue Ocean idea again). As much as I love lightweight road bikes and expensive carbon bits, I still truly believe that stylish (and fun) urban bike categories have the most potential for future growth.

On the subject of bikes for the Blue Ocean, I’ll close with a link to a recent article that Mark Sanders wrote for the Eurobike Show Daily titled ‘Cycling Posture- Upright is Right’.  After you read the article, check out EcoVelo’s follow-up post, which not surprisingly has generated some debate in the comments section.  I’ll save my thoughts on the subject for another post, but for now I encourage you to vote in the riding position poll and join the discussion over at EcoVelo.