Category: Concept

  • Design of the Alize and other assorted links

    Design of the Alize and other assorted links

    When I first heard about NeilPryde bikes a couple years ago, the renderings of the sculpted carbon Alize frame immediately caught my attention. Perhaps the design of the Alize is old news at this point, but I just discovered Sonny Lim’s portfolio page on the Behance network, which gives us a glimpse into the design…

  • Porsche concept bike by David Schultz

    Porsche concept bike by David Schultz

      Not too long ago, I posted a picture from a 20 year old copy of Bicycling Magazine, which featured two industrial designers at Specialized in the early 90s (two of the first in the bike industry). One of those young designers was current Specialized creative director Robert Egger, who I have mentioned on this…

  • Three student design projects

    Three student design projects

    Richard Heath is an industrial design intern in Sydney, Australia.  He is attempting to design an alternative to e-bikes currently on the market and has started a blog to document his development process. He is in the early conceptual sketching stage right now, but it should be fun to follow his blog to see how…

  • A well-lit helmet and a trail of chalk

    A well-lit helmet and a trail of chalk

    I first noticed the Lazer Urbanize helmet, with integrated front and rear lights, at Interbike 2009, and it was one of the products that I really liked at the show.  For commuting and urban riding, I definitely think the idea of a helmet that not only illuminates the road ahead, but makes the wearer’s head…

  • Catching up

    Catching up

    If you are wondering why I didn’t post last week, it’s because there is really no need for me to continue writing about bicycle design. Richard from Cyclelicious finally succeeded in designing the perfect bicycle (coincidently on April 1st), so any future designs probably won’t be worth discussing.  I assume that most of you are…

  • Specialized Turbo e-bike

    Specialized Turbo e-bike

    I was pretty excited over the sporty Trek Phase e-bike concept that was displayed at Trek World 2009. Like the carbon fiber version of the Sanyo eneloop for the Japanese market, the Trek Phase concept bike challenged the common belief (in the US at least) that e-bikes have to look clunky, utilitarian, and uncool. I…

  • Peugeot DL122 concept bike

    Peugeot DL122 concept bike

    Some of you may remember my post from a couple years ago about the TATO bicycle, which featured a storage compartment for a laptop bag integrated in the frame. The designers at French carmaker Peugeot have come up with a new concept bike based on that same idea. The aluminum frame Peugeot DL122 concept bike features…

  • 2012 IBDC winners from Taipei

    2012 IBDC winners from Taipei

    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…

  • Opposite ends of the design spectrum

    Opposite ends of the design spectrum

    I didn’t spend much time on the web this past week as I was traveling, but one bike that I saw featured at Yatzer Design did catch my attention. The handbuilt steel Italia Veloce Magnifica fixie, with its chromed lugs and traditional flat fork crown, is definitely rooted in traditional Italian framebuilding. Details like the…

  • Starck’s town bike and Teams Design’s ntb

    Starck’s town bike and Teams Design’s ntb

    I mentioned in an earlier post that Philippe Starck had been invited by the City of Bordeaux, France to design “the town bike of the future”. He recently unveiled his PIBAL concept bike, which you can see in the attached rendering. If I understand correctly, the idea behind the platform on the step-through frame is…

  • Orbea GROW and a few midweek links

    Orbea GROW and a few midweek links

    The idea of creating bikes that grow with kids that has been around, but designer Alex Fernandez Camps’ approach for Orbea is interesting. Many kids bikes allow for substantial adjustment of seat and stem height, but Camps’ design features an aluminum frame that can be expanded horizontally as the child grows. The GROW bikes come…

  • A couple of folding bike concepts

    A couple of folding bike concepts

    For his thesis project at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, Industrial Design graduate student Ramon Hung designed the Velo Chic folding bike, which is specifically aimed toward women living in urban areas. On his portfolio site, Raymon points out that: “In America, women comprise only 25% of bicycle riders. The main factor that…

  • Carbon manufacturing at TIME and assorted bike links

    Carbon manufacturing at TIME and assorted bike links

    I am WAY overloaded with projects at the moment, so the links and topics that I have been meaning to post lately have been backing up. I won’t get to them all today, but I want to take a quick break from the madness and quickly pass along a few of them. Core77 posted an…

  • Tulip Fun Fun rack and the Shape Field bike

    Tulip Fun Fun rack and the Shape Field bike

    I saw Margus Triibmann’s Tulip Fun Fun bike rack yesterday, and mentioned it on Twitter and Google+ saying, “This is a clever bike rack design. I’d be interested to see how it holds up over time in an urban environment though.” A few people replied with concerns about the security of a flexible bike rack,…

  • An interesting track bike and assorted random links

    An interesting track bike and assorted random links

    I am traveling for work this week, and my schedule has been pretty hectic. I don’t have much time to post, but I do want to quickly pass along a few links. The custom track bike you see here was sent to me by a reader (actually by a reader’s girlfriend). It reminds me a…

  • 2011 recap for Bicycle Design

    2011 recap for Bicycle Design

    I finally had a chance to review this site’s stats from 2011, so it’s time for another year end recap post. Continuing the trend from 2009 and 2010, Bicycle Design’s traffic seems to be growing slightly. Google Analytics reports just over a million total pageviews (1,138,282) for the blog during 2011 from 191 different countries.…

  • Any ideas for a Bicycle Design competition in 2012?

    Any ideas for a Bicycle Design competition in 2012?

    It has been a few years since the first design competition that I staged here at Bicycle Design.  The “Commuter Bike for the Masses” competition at the end of 2008 took quite a bit of time to organize and administer, but it was a lot of fun to see, and discuss, the many creative entries…