Category: Commuter
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Oregon Manifest winner and a fast cargo bike
I am back in the U.S. after another busy product development trip in China. I worked long days on this trip, and the 12-hour time difference always hits me harder when I return home, so I am not up for writing much of a post this afternoon. My brain is fried, but I want to…
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StayLocked bicycle by Andrew Leinonen
Toronto based industrial designer Andrew Leinonen wanted to find a solution to the problem of urban bike theft- “I realized that in a big city like Toronto or NYC, any lock (no matter how bulky or heavy) can only serve as a deterrent for a determined thief with the right tools.” His design solution, the…
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More Eurobike goodness
The winners of this year’s Eurobike Awards, organized by iF design, have been announced, and it’s not surprising that e-bikes and utilitarian designs are well represented. Read more about the 10 gold winners, and the 1 green winner at designboom. VeloNews has been posting photos from the show, not surprisingly with a focus on road…
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PumpTire- a self inflating bicycle tire
A couple days ago, I received an email about the “worlds first self-inflating bicycle tire.” My initial reaction was, “first…no way,” but technically that might be a true statement (assuming that inventions like this one never actually worked or were produced). Unlike the 2008 PumpHub or the older Nakano Air Hub, the PumpTire has a…
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NuVinci Harmony automatic shifting for e-bikes
Automatic transmissions for bicycles are not a new idea. One that many of you may remember is the Browning transmission, which was licensed by Suntour in the 80’s. More recently, Shimano’s Coasting group featured automatic 3-speed shifting, but like the Browning transmission, it was not really a commercial success. Those are just two of many…
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Project Aura wheel lighting system
According to the Core 77 blog, “Project Aura is a bicycle lighting system designed to address the issue of nighttime urban bike commuting.” The design, by Ethan Frier and Jonathan Ota of Carnegie Mellon University, was recently chosen as the student winner in the Transportation category of this year’s Core77 Design Awards. You can read…
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A few bike links from Google +
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed a slight decline in activity lately. I am definitely not giving up on Twitter, but I have been playing around with Google Plus for the last couple of weeks (add me to your circles if you are using it too). So far, I have discovered…
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Le Tour bikes and other Friday links
Wow, that was an exciting day in the Tour! I won’t give anything away for any of you who didn’t watch it live, but I will say that watching the stage this morning put behind a bit on work that I need to get done today. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen, but…
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Bikes, hubs, jeans, a camera bag, and more
The new Specialized Source is a bike that caught my attention as I was looking at the 2012 Global Product Launch coverage at Bike Hugger. The sporty urban bike comes as either a derailleur version or with a belt drive. I like the fact that it includes fenders, a bell, and a dyno-powered light…feature that…
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SoBi- a smartphone based bike sharing system
Around this time last year, I posted the Etta bike, a semi-recumbent city bike that Nick Foley designed as his senior thesis project at Pratt. Since then, Nick graduated and started working with the design team at the bike-sharing company Social Bicycles. Nick explains that Social Bicycles (SoBi) is a bike-sharing system that uses “smart” bikes…
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Two very similar plywood bike concepts
Five or six years ago while looking through a book of classic bent plywood chair designs, I sketched out a bike frame inspired by the work of Charles and Ray Eames, Alvar Aalto, and others. I had seen many plywood bike frames in the past, but none of them took advantage of the flexibility that…
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Blaze- a handlebar mounted virtual bike lane
I have been a bit preoccupied with a local bike lane issue for the past few days, so this virtual bicycle lane article from Bike Biz caught my attention this morning. The Blaze concept, by British design student Emily Brooke of the University of Brighton, is a handlebar-mounted laser that projects a personal bike lane…
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DuoCycle trike
DuoCycle is a student project by Wim Bussels, who is currently studying industrial design at MAD Faculty in Genk, Belgium. Wim’s upright/recumbent tricycle (with a rear hubless wheel) allows a person with disabilities to ride in tandem with an accompanist who controls the steering and braking. Both riders can pedal, so the disabled rider to…
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BTWD and a couple of cargo bikes
It’s National Bike to Work Day here in the US. For the hardcore bike commuters who might be reading this, today is like any other day (except for the free food and schwag). A couple weeks ago, I heard one of those everyday, rain or shine commuters dismiss the idea of Bike to Work Day,…
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Another bike bus
My recent post about the City Cycle “pedal-powered pub” generated a couple of comments pointing out similar vehicles. AJ mentioned that pedal powered buses like the “bierfiets” are already very popular in Holland. Like the City Cycle, the bierfiets looks like a lot of fun, but we all know that human powered buses can be…
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VANDEYK Contemporary Cycles
According to founder Arendt van Deyk, VANDEYK Contemporary Cycles is a collaboration of renowned creative professionals dedicated to a simple mission: “designing and building the most ravishingly beautiful bicycles – and not compromising along the way. Ever.” Bicycles are van Deyk’s passion, and that is his reason for starting the new company, which he refers…
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Wooden bikes from Audi (no foolin’)
I am off to China for work again tomorrow, so new posts will be infrequent for a few weeks. I’ll try to write a few quick ones when I can find some free time though, so keep checking in. Before I leave, I want to quickly just pass along a few links of interest. At…
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Bikes from CB2
CB2, the younger, hipper sister store of Crate and Barrel, is the latest housewares and furniture retailer to jump into the bicycle business. Their first two bikes are ‘omafiets’ style and were created in collaboration with Republic bikes (the same company that Urban Outfitters teamed up with for their bike offerings last year). I kind…