Bicycle Design

Author: James

  • Atlas bikes

    A reader, Mike, left a comment not long ago about the Atlas bike that he rode in India. His comment about those “heavy, slow, indestructible” utilitarian bikes prompted this post. For those of you who are interested, here is a picture that Mike sent me of the bikes to which he was referring. Read a…

  • Trikes and Macs

    I followed a link from designboom this morning to find these great shots of tricycles in Beijing. Since I mentioned utilitarian bikes around the world in a recent post, I want to pass these pictures along. If you are interested, you can also find a few of my own pictures of Chinese bikes and tricycles…

  • Friday links

    I am in a hurry today, but I want to quickly pass along a few links of interest. Check out the Trek Lime blog for an interesting podcast. Trek used Solidworks software in the development of the Lime, so the folks at Solidworks talked to Trek’s senior industrial designer Hans Eckholm about the design of…

  • What kind of bikes can change the world?

    I was going to post something else today, but an anonymous comment left in response to my last post got my attention: “The Bicycles that can change the world are not made of carbon, do not have aero spokes, do not have 10 speed drivetrains. More likely, they are closer to the Atlas bike I…

  • Toy bikes?

    I like to receive comments and email from readers, so I it is not my intention to pick on anyone, but something in a recent email struck me as funny. I got a message from a reader who said he likes the blog, but not all the “impractical toy bicycles” that I have been posting…

  • Should designers stay away from bicycles?

    “Sometimes I wish designers would stay away from bicycles”. Certainly I don’t agree, but “someone” posted that statement on the Core 77 discussion forum. Actually, the comment was left a long time ago in response to a thread that I started in an attempt to generate a few concept submissions to bicycle design. In recent…

  • The Wild Buffalo and more on Coasting

    This concept bike is not new, so some of you may have seen it before. A reader, Brian, sent this image to me and I knew I had seen it somewhere before. This bike, designed by Jason Su and called the Wild Buffalo, won 3rd place in the 2004 Taiwan International Bicycle Design competition (for…

  • The Electrobike Cometh

    The Electrobike Cometh

    Note from James: This is Michael Downes’ second submission to Bicycle Design (wow, he is on a roll). If you are new to the blog and don’t know who Michael is, read the profile about him that I wrote last February. Since that time, Michael has left his position at Giant Bicycles to work as…

  • Coasting follow up

    I just found out today though a Technorati link that Raleigh has a blog. Great, I am always glad to see new blogs from bike companies. Check out their post from yesterday for additional links about their Coasting bike and the Shimano Coasting concept in general.

  • IDEO’s Coasting design

    As you probably already know from reading this blog, I am a big fan of new designs that target those who don’t already ride a bike. When Shimano came out with the Coasting group last year, I couldn’t wait to see new designs emerge that were based around the group. I think the Trek Lime…

  • Lots of Links

    A lot of great bike design content has popped up on the web in the week or so that I haven’t been posting. I won’t elaborate, but I want to quickly pass along a few of the interesting things that I have seen lately. First, of course, is The North American Handmade Bicycle Show, which…

  • In Praise of Powergrips

    Note from James: This is the long awaited first post from guest contributor Michael Downes. His timing couldn’t be better since I am too busy to post anything right now (I’ll probably be back at the end of this week). I really enjoyed reading this post, and I think you will too. Thanks Michael. The…

  • Middleman

    I know, I know. I just finished saying that I was taking a short break from the blog and here I am, just a few hours later, posting again. It just goes to show that you should think twice about listening to me next time. Actually, right after I posted earlier today, Tero Jakku, a…

  • Old suspension bikes

    I found a really great thread on the Ridemonkey forum last week. I noticed on Statcounter that someone had linked my Pong magic fork post to a thread named “Pictures of old and obscure suspension bikes”, so I followed the link over to check it out. What a great collection of old suspension designs. If…

  • How light is too light?

    In keeping with the weight theme from the last two posts, I want to pose a question; how much lighter can bikes get? Scott’s 6 kg (13 pound) Addict road bike received a lot of attention at Interbike last year. The Storck Fascenario, which Posh Bikes claims to be the lightest bike in the world,…

  • A little Birdy

    This customized Birdy monocoque folder on Spinopsys caught my attention this morning. I think it is a great looking bike, but I was a little surprised when I read the weight. In his post, Philip speculates that “this particular Birdy has got to be the fastest and lightest anywhere.” Maybe so, lets see, 10 kilograms…

  • A beautiful Crumpton at NAHBS

    You may remember my post about the ultra light (7 pound, 3 ounce) Crumpton fixed gear bike that was shown at Interbike. In response to that post, Lance Johnson of Group de Tete mentioned that they were working on a revised version of the bike. Well, this bike, which I spotted in a Frame Forum…

  • Cannondale Jackknife at Fiets Rai

    I first posted renderings of the student designed Cannondale Jackknife concept bike back in January of 2006. Since that time, the post has consistently been one of the most popular archived pages here on Bicycle Design. Over a year later, it still gets quite a few hits every week. A few of the hits stream…