A long weekend is coming up (here in the US at least). Before I ditch the computer and hit the pool, I want to pass along a bunch of the interesting links that I have noticed lately.
If you have been checking any bike related sites at all in the past couple weeks, you know that Specialized unveiled a very impressive in-house wind tunnel. Sounds great, but the wind tunnel will only be used for the development of high-end time trial and aero road bikes, right? Maybe not. As Richard Masoner of Cyclelicious pointed out after watching the live online Q&A session with Specialized engineers, there was a “surprising amount of discussion on benefit for commuters at the Specialized wind tunnel.” That is definitely good news. I am looking forward to seeing the results of the #areoiseverything campaign from Specialized soon… throughout the entire product line.
By the way, Specialized is already using the wind tunnel to test more than just bikes, as you can see in this photo from John Friedrich.
Lumigrids, is an LED bike light idea that takes a different approach to improving safety at night. It projects a grid onto the road ahead so the rider can see bumps, potholes, and other changes in the surface. I am a bit skeptical, but I would love to see a working prototype. Read more at YankoDesign and Boing Boing.
From lights on the bikes, to lights made from bike parts. Inhabitat posted about Ballroom Luminoso, an art installation of LED pendants made from bike parts found under a San Antonio overpass. Beautiful…I love the pattern created from the shadows on the ceiling.
S-cargo, a carrier that replaces the front wheel of a standard bicycle, was a graduation project by Israeli designer Ofir Yadan. While connected, it turns the bike into a front load cargo trike. Used separately, it can function as a trolley or stroller. According to Ofir, S-cargo is “a platform that can receive different add-on’s such as a bag, tool-box, child-seat and so on, depends on rider needs.” Read more about it on his Coroflot page and check out a video of it in action here.
Velo-2nd Gear: Bicycle Culture and Style is a book from Gestalten that “celebrates contemporary bicycle culture’s diverse scenes.” Fast Co. Design featured 11 of the bikes from the book in a recent post.
The three winning entries of a 1979 “Bike of the future” design competition, sponsored by the British Cycling Bureau in London, were featured in a recent Domus post from the archive. The idea was to “develop new ideas for bicycle design, which was by then already considered a valid alternative to motor vehicles.” It is quite interesting that all three winners were folding bikes. Bromptons were becoming increasingly popular in the UK at the time, and I am sure that was a major influence on those who entered the competition.
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