• Rishock, a pedal assist electric quadricycle

    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…

  • Cycling Science by Max Glaskin

    Cycling Science by Max Glaskin

    Cycling Science: How Rider and Machine Work Together  by Max Glaskin is a new book from the University of Chicago Press that will be released in November.  I don’t have a copy of the entire book, just a 10 page preview sampler from the publisher, but from what I can see it looks like it…

  • A few Friday links

    A few Friday links

    Okay, it is time for another Friday catch-up post to quickly share a few links that I recently bookmarked, but haven’t had the chance to mention yet. Chris Luomanen’s Barbasket is an interesting concept.  It is a handlebar with a soft basket that attaches to the integrated frames.  The project is on Kickstarter now, so…

  • A new Aston Martin and an old Lotus bike

    A new Aston Martin and an old Lotus bike

    A couple of readers have inquired about the Aston Martin One-77 bike, which is billed on the website as “the world’s most technologically advanced road bicycle.” Aside from the information that can found on the website, I don’t really know much about the bike, which features a split seat tube and dual crown fork design…

  • Olympic road bikes

    Olympic road bikes

    I definitely have a bit of Olympic fever, so I was up early on Saturday and Sunday to watch the London 2012 road races live (both really great races by the way). In the men’s and women’s pelotons, it was hard to miss the neon red Specializeds that were used by riders on teams sponsored…

  • A bike parking design competition for Puerto Rico

    A bike parking design competition for Puerto Rico

    According to the designers, Ariana Hernández and Aixa Solá, “Bench rack is a concept born from the need for street furniture to help maximize space and urban audiences”. The design concept works as a rack for bicycles, but also functions as bench seating in an urban public space. Bench rack is just one of many…

  • KETTLER eMotion electric bike concept

    KETTLER eMotion electric bike concept

    I mentioned a project from Behance yesterday, so I will follow up with one more today.  The eMotion electric bike concept shown here was designed by University of Wuppertal students Stefan Reichert, Sven Schulte-Tillmann, and Arina Nechaeva in collaboration with the German bike manufacturer KETTLER. The brief for the project was simple- “develop the future…

  • Trek Visual Brand Language Sculpture

    Trek Visual Brand Language Sculpture

    I was on vacation at the beach with my family last week, and took a break from this blog (and the internet as a whole).  I have some catching up to do, and a lot of bike design content to sort though and share, but I’ll start with a very quick post today. Michael Hammond…

  • Velomobile technology, design, and engineering seminar

    Velomobile technology, design, and engineering seminar

    Though I have yet to actually ride in a velomobile, I mention them on the blog fairly often.  It is definitely a transportation category that interests me, and one that I would very much like to learn more about.  For that reason, I really wish I could make it to the 7th International Velomobile Seminar,…

  • The Faraday Porteur and more

    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.…

  • FABIKE

    FABIKE

    With his FABIKE project, Fabio’s goal was to create a “high-end urban bike with innovative solutions.” The name stands for Flexibly Adjustable Bike, and the versatile  7075 aluminum sliding vertical dropouts with titanium locking bolts are the core of his frame design. A few other singlespeed/ fixed gear bikes, Lynskeys for example, have sliding vertical…

  • Cervellum Hindsight 35 – first impressions

    Cervellum Hindsight 35 – first impressions

    About a week before I left for China, Evan Solida, the designer and founder of Cerevellum, dropped off one of the first production Hindsight 35 units for me to try out. Some of you may remember the test ride I did with one of his early Gameboy based prototypes back in 2008…and I think you…

  • AeroVelo’s human powered helicopter project

    AeroVelo’s human powered helicopter project

    Late last year, I mentioned the University of Toronto Human Powered Vehicle Team’s Vortex HPV, which they raced at the World Human Powered Speed Championships in Battle Mountain, Nevada. This year, the team from Toronto has a more ambitious project- the world’s first successful human powered helicopter. Team member Victor Ragusila explains that they are…

  • Are beam frames making a comeback?

    Are beam frames making a comeback?

    My post from last year about pro triathlete TJ Tollakson’s 1996 Zipp bike is still generating a fair bit of traffic here at Bicycle Design, so I assume there must be some renewed interest in beam frames.  If the reaction to Graeme Pearson’s Z1-Eleven frame design on the Slowtwitch forum is any indication, there is…

  • DIY electronic shifting

    DIY electronic shifting

    If you want Di2 on your bike, but you don’t have an extra few thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket, Computer Engineer Nabil Tewolde has a perfect solution for you. His DIY electronic shifting system is, for the most part, made from parts found at his local hardware store, electronics shop, and hobby…

  • Three bike books from Laurence King Publishing

    Three bike books from Laurence King Publishing

    I was only expecting a copy of The Custom Road Bike, by Guy Andrews, from the folks at Laurence King Publishing, but I received two other books as well. All three are interesting, so I want to quickly share my impressions of each of them. When I first browsed through The Custom Road Bike,  it…