Year: 2010
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Mechanical doping and the future of e-bikes
I posted about lightweight e-bike designs back in April. At the time, I jokingly remarked in a discussion group on LinkedIn that, “the way I am riding this spring, I could use a little electric boost to bridge the gap in the local Tuesday night training rides”. I may have been kidding, but apparently I…
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Seoul cycle design competition 2010
Several readers have emailed me lately suggesting that I post a link to the designboom post about the Seoul Cycle Design Competition. I actually already mentioned it, but it was buried in a post full of links, so I can see how many people didn’t notice it. The competition has three categories: cycle design, infrastructure…
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Concept bikes by Omer Sagiv and more
Omer Sagiv is an industrial designer who currently works for Ron Arad in London. He sent me three of his conceptual bicycle designs, which you can also check out on his blog. Some of his sketches in particular are worth a look. I was sort of shocked to see this collaboration between Cervelo and luxury…
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My Assault on Mt. Mitchell
This blog is focused on bikes and cycling products, so I don’t really write about my rides very often. Yesterday though, I finally had the chance to do a ride that I have wanted to do for a long time, so I will take a break from design content to discuss my first Assault on…
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FlashBak
For the last couple months, I have been trying out a product called FlashBak. As you can see in the pictures, the FlashBak is a rectangle made from heavy-duty nylon strap with 10 embedded flashing LEDs. Four clips on the corners with elastic cords hold the unit in place and the 3 AAA batteries are…
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Land Rover LR-1 concept bicycle
Graham Hetherington is an automotive design student at Coventry University. His LR-1 bicycle design recently won a regional design contest sponsored by Land Rover. In the competition, students from selected schools across the UK were given the opportunity to create a bike based on the Land Rover design language. As Graham’s presentation board points out,…
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If Kevin Costner still rode a bike today
The Giro d’Italia is well underway and the Tour of California started yesterday, so naturally I have been checking the tech sections of VeloNews, CyclingNews, Road Bike Action, and other cycling sites to see which race bikes they are featuring. The majority of the featured bikes are pretty predictable, but the bright red Specialized Tarmac…
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Love Your Bike Portsmouth
I briefly mentioned Love Your Bike Portsmouth in a post last month. The event, which will take place in Southsea, Portsmouth, UK on May 30th, will feature “workshops, bike demo’s, bike polo, marketstalls, bike artwork, bike safety and a showcase bike arena.” For now, the organizers have taken over a store window display with a…
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TATO bicycles
Jean-Louis Francescotti is a designer who commutes to work almost daily by bike. He was looking for a better way to transport his laptop and files, so he designed a new frame with an integrated storage compartment in the main triangle to do just that. Here is what Jean-Louis had to say about his design: “Tato…
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Bike Snob book illustrator Chris Koelle
I am a fan of Bike Snob NYC (aka Eben Weiss), so I was pretty excited to receive a copy of his new book from the publisher a few days ago. It is a nice little book… hardbound and about 5” x 7” inches in size with full color photos and 2 color line drawings…
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An off-topic post
On the Bicycle Design about page, I mention that the blog is something I do in my spare time, but “free time is pretty limited for me with a family, a full time job, and a house full of bikes.” I should also add local bicycle advocacy issues to that list of priorities. Though my…
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2010 Shanghai Bike Convention
The Shanghai Bike Convention wrapped up last week, and People’s Bike has some great photo galleries of bikes from the show. Check out all of their posts with the tag Shanghai to get an overall feel. Of particular note are some of the new bikes from traditional Chinese brands like Phoenix, Forever, and Flying Pigeon.…
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E-bikes from Lexus and VW
Bicycles from automakers are nothing new. Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Ferrari, and BMW are just a few of the car companies that have offered bikes in the past. Some of the designs are better than others, but usually they are really just relabeled bikes that were designed and manufactured by another company. In many cases, the bicycles…
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Velomobile speedforms and more
Eric Stoddard of Speed Studio Design recently posted some nice velomobile sketches on his blog. One of his sketches is featured here, but follow the link to see the other two. Eric is an automotive and product designer based in Seoul, Korea, so that makes a perfect segueway into the next topic I want to…
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Tyrell road bikes
I first mentioned the Japanese bike company Tyrell in a 2008 post. The bikes are not sold in the U.S. or Europe, but a friend of mine who lives in Taiwan has one of their mini velos and loves it. He recently sent me a message to let me know that Tyrell now has a…
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2010 Sea Otter Classic and more
The Sea Otter Classic wrapped up yesterday in Monterey, California. Richard from Cyclelicious was there, and he posted quite a few pictures from the event, including this shot of a custom chopper concept bike by Specialized Design Director Robert Egger. For more shots of bikes at Sea Otter, check out the MTBR.com coverage and Bike…
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E-bikes for “red ocean” cyclists
I post about e-bikes from time to time, and I am definitely a fan of the category. I believe that urban oriented e-bikes, like the Sanyo Eneloop, have potential to get more people riding, and that is definitely a good thing. Longtails and cargo bikes are another type of bike that I really think could…
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Bikes of Paris-Roubaix
Paris-Roubaix is coming up on Sunday, and I am always interested to see the various teams’ equipment choices for racing on the cobbles. Cervelo posted today about the bike setups for the Test Team, based on R3 frames with 1cm longer chainstays to allow for mud clearance. The article also discusses the Vittoria tubulars that…