Category: Commuter
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A moment for bikes in New York
I’ll take a break from sharing new bicycle concepts today to reflect a bit on what is happening in New York City this week. According to the NY Times, “in post-storm New York, the bike is having a moment of sorts.” In addition to reports about bicycles being the best (in some cases only) way…
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Two different approaches to “reinventing the wheel”
If asked to name an invention that has dramatically improved the bicycle in the last couple hundred years, the pneumatic tire would probably be at the top of many people’s lists. John Dunlop’s patent for an air filled bicycle tire in 1888 set the course for the tires that are used on almost all vehicles…
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VeloTilt: Design of a low drag practical velomobile
Recently, Arnold Ligtvoet from RaptoBike sent me a link to an interesting project that he is involved with. The goal is to develop a velomobile that is both practical and fast, and the team that is working on the VeloTilt certainly has the credentials to make it happen. The development team consists of Will Schermer-…
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MiniMum by Omer Sagiv
MiniMum is the latest bike idea from designer Omer Sagiv, whose previous concept bikes I featured in a 2010 post. The MiniMum was designed as a simplified city bike; as Omer says, “using the minimum production effort, and on the other hand getting maximum user experience.” The frame is made from aluminum tubes and a…
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Eric Birkhauser’s ZIPcycle share concept
My post about Eric Birkhauser’s Petal Velomobile concept generated some good discussion earlier this year. The architect’s latest project, ZIPcycle, is a work in progress that will be part of a larger project that he is working on… a book on active transit systems. This time around, in addition to a sleek recumbent HPV, he…
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Catching up again
Yeah…I know that I sound like a broken record by prefacing most every post lately with a mention of how busy I am with work and other projects. I really haven’t been able to spend much time thinking about this blog lately though, so please bear with me while posts are infrequent, and my responses…
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Concept bikes from the Peugeot Design Lab
Earlier this year, I posted about the Peugeot DL122 concept bike, designed by Neil Simpson. There was quite a bit of interest in that original bike, so Neil decided to add a battery and motor to make an e-bike version that they could show at Eurobike. He redesigned the handlebars to hide the cables and…
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Toka bike by Tobias Bernstein
I am slammed with work this week, so I am a bit behind on posts. I do want to quickly pass along a few renderings that a reader recently shared with me though. Tobias Bernstein, an Industrial Designer working in Austria, shared his design concept for a belt drive foldable city bike. As an occasional…
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Mando Footloose: a chainless hybrid e-bike
I briefly mentioned the Mando Footloose chainless e-bike recently, but it is an interesting design that is overdue for a post of its own. Mando Footloose is a partnership project of Mando Corp. and Meister Inc., both of which are automotive suppliers in South Korea. To design and develop a chainless hybrid electric bike “featuring…
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Go Fara: a student project by Adam Taylor
Adam Taylor is an industrial designer in England who is working toward finishing his MA in Future Design. His final project is a new commuter bicycle aimed at changing the everyday commute and working day of typical 9 to 5 office staff. The system consists of the Go Fara service and the bike “Tim”, which…
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ISUDA Bike Share Design Competition
It has been quite a while since I brought up the idea of staging another design competition here at Bicycle Design. That post late last year generated many great comments, and I hope to be able to use a few of your competition ideas in the future. One common thread in many of the comments…
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A few interesting designs from Eurobike 2012
Today marks the last day of Eurobike 2012, and I haven’t been following the show as much as I would have liked. For more in-depth coverage check out Bike Biz, Bike Rumor, VeloNews, Road Bike Action, and Bike Radar (just to name a few). What I would like to share today are a few products…
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A practical velomobile…and really fast ones too
It seems like I have been hearing more and more from companies making velomobiles lately, and that is a trend that I hope to see continue. I am definitely not an expert on the subject of HPVs or velomobiles, but the Challenger from UK based Ocean Cycles is a pedal powered machine that immediately caught…
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Printed titanium, invisible helmets, glowing bikes, and more
I have noticed quite a few bike related posts on design blogs lately. A recent Core 77 post featured a couple of track bike sketches by Andrew McMillan, which they mentioned would be perfect for the CGI animated “future velodrome” from the London Olympic Games. Also at Core, check out the recent post about digitally…
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Step through folding bikes and an improved seatpost/floor pump
Show season for the bike industry is right around the corner, with Eurobike 2012 kicking off at the end of this month. One new design that will debut at the show is the ultra low-step frame “Swoop” from Tern. According to the company, “The Swoop top tube is only 28 cm (11″) off the ground,…
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Rishock, a pedal assist electric quadricycle
I briefly mentioned the Rishock electric Quadricycle in a post last year, but I think the concept is overdue for a post of its own. Rishock was designed by Max Zoggia of Supermaxistudio in collaboration with Ali Kerkeni, and engineers Stefano Dolcetti and Sergio Rizzo. The recumbent pedal assist electric vehicles can accommodate two riders and…
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The Faraday Porteur and more
After a longer than average trip to China, I am especially busy this week trying to catch up in the office. I do have a few links that I want to pass along though, so I’ll take a quick break from my backlog of emails and drawing approvals to share a few of them now.…