The winners of the 16th annual International Bicycle Design Competition (IBDC) were announced at the Taipei Cycle Show last week. From over 800 total entries and 20 finalists, Taiwanese designer Larry Chen took the Gold award this year for his Velocity electric bike design. The pedal assist city bike features a “power core” consisting of a battery, motor, and control unit that slides into the vertical section of the frame from the top. The bike can be used as an e-bike with the power core inserted or as a standard bike with it removed (saving a lot of weight). You can read more about the Velocity, and see several photos of the prototype, at Cycling Satin Cesena.
The Silver award went to Chinese designer Tim Lee for his “City” bike. Compared to the Velocity, this design is very nontraditional, with a tiny front wheel that makes one wonder how practical it would really be for city riding. The Bronze winner was Paulus Maringka of New Zealand with his G2 cargo trike, which you can read more about at Yanko Design. Also, you can see additional images and read more about both of the 2nd and 3rd place designs at Cycling Satin Cesena. That post features other prototypes on display in Taipei as well, including this one called Woody, which looks similar to my old bent-ply bike concept from about 5 years ago. It’s interesting how many laminated veneer frames like that I have seen in the last year or so.
In addition to the Gold, Silver, and Bronze award winners, you can see each of the runner up “Excellent and Merit award”winners on the IBDC website (I’m not sure why these are labeled as 2011 winners…they are the ones that were announced a few days ago). As always with this competition there are some rather strange designs, but that makes them all the more fun to look through.
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