• FlashBak

    FlashBak

    For the last couple months, I have been trying out a product called FlashBak. As you can see in the pictures, the FlashBak is a rectangle made from heavy-duty nylon strap with 10 embedded flashing LEDs. Four clips on the corners with elastic cords hold the unit in place and the 3 AAA batteries are…

  • Land Rover LR-1 concept bicycle

    Land Rover LR-1 concept bicycle

    Graham Hetherington is an automotive design student at Coventry University. His LR-1 bicycle design recently won a regional design contest sponsored by Land Rover. In the competition, students from selected schools across the UK were given the opportunity to create a bike based on the Land Rover design language. As Graham’s presentation board points out,…

  • If Kevin Costner still rode a bike today

    If Kevin Costner still rode a bike today

    The Giro d’Italia is well underway and the Tour of California started yesterday, so naturally I have been checking the tech sections of VeloNews, CyclingNews, Road Bike Action, and other cycling sites to see which race bikes they are featuring. The majority of the featured bikes are pretty predictable, but the bright red Specialized Tarmac…

  • Love Your Bike Portsmouth

    Love Your Bike Portsmouth

    I briefly mentioned Love Your Bike Portsmouth in a post last month. The event, which will take place in Southsea, Portsmouth, UK on May 30th, will feature “workshops, bike demo’s, bike polo, marketstalls, bike artwork, bike safety and a showcase bike arena.” For now, the organizers have taken over a store window display with a…

  • Bike Snob book illustrator Chris Koelle

    Bike Snob book illustrator Chris Koelle

    I am a fan of Bike Snob NYC (aka Eben Weiss), so I was pretty excited to receive a copy of his new book from the publisher a few days ago. It is a nice little book… hardbound and about 5” x 7” inches in size with full color photos and 2 color line drawings…

  • An off-topic post

    On the Bicycle Design about page, I mention that the blog is something I do in my spare time, but “free time is pretty limited for me with a family, a full time job, and a house full of bikes.” I should also add local bicycle advocacy issues to that list of priorities. Though my…

  • 2010 Shanghai Bike Convention

    2010 Shanghai Bike Convention

    The Shanghai Bike Convention wrapped up last week, and People’s Bike has some great photo galleries of bikes from the show. Check out all of their posts with the tag Shanghai to get an overall feel. Of particular note are some of the new bikes from traditional Chinese brands like Phoenix, Forever, and Flying Pigeon.…

  • E-bikes from Lexus and VW

    E-bikes from Lexus and VW

    Bicycles from automakers are nothing new. Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Ferrari, and BMW are just a few of the car companies that have offered bikes in the past. Some of the designs are better than others, but usually they are really just relabeled bikes that were designed and manufactured by another company. In many cases, the bicycles…

  • Velomobile speedforms and more

    Velomobile speedforms and more

    Eric Stoddard of Speed Studio Design recently posted some nice velomobile sketches on his blog. One of his sketches is featured here, but follow the link to see the other two. Eric is an automotive and product designer based in Seoul, Korea, so that makes a perfect segueway into the next topic I want to…

  • Tyrell road bikes

    Tyrell road bikes

    I first mentioned the Japanese bike company Tyrell in a 2008 post. The bikes are not sold in the U.S. or Europe, but a friend of mine who lives in Taiwan has one of their mini velos and loves it. He recently sent me a message to let me know that Tyrell now has a…

  • 2010 Sea Otter Classic and more

    2010 Sea Otter Classic and more

    The Sea Otter Classic wrapped up yesterday in Monterey, California. Richard from Cyclelicious was there, and he posted quite a few pictures from the event, including this shot of a custom chopper concept bike by Specialized Design Director Robert Egger. For more shots of bikes at Sea Otter, check out the MTBR.com coverage and Bike…

  • E-bikes for “red ocean” cyclists

    E-bikes for “red ocean” cyclists

    I post about e-bikes from time to time, and I am definitely a fan of the category. I believe that urban oriented e-bikes, like the Sanyo Eneloop, have potential to get more people riding, and that is definitely a good thing. Longtails and cargo bikes are another type of bike that I really think could…

  • Bikes of Paris-Roubaix

    Bikes of Paris-Roubaix

    Paris-Roubaix is coming up on Sunday, and I am always interested to see the various teams’ equipment choices for racing on the cobbles. Cervelo posted today about the bike setups for the Test Team, based on R3 frames with 1cm longer chainstays to allow for mud clearance. The article also discusses the Vittoria tubulars that…

  • MONOWALKER hiking/cycling trailer

    MONOWALKER hiking/cycling trailer

    The MONOWALKER, designed by Kai Fuchs, is a great looking wooden and aluminum bike trailer, but as you might guess from the name it is more than that. The product is primarily a single wheeled hiking trailer, but by adding another wheel and a bike drawbar, you can convert it into a cycling trailer. Watch…

  • City Cycle concept bike

    City Cycle concept bike

    I am back from a short family vacation, so I am extra busy today trying to catch up on some work. I want to quickly passing along a reader submitted design before the weekend, but first I will point you to Eric Stoddard’s commentary on Mark Sanders’ presentation at the Bicycle Design Trend Forum, which…

  • No longer Coasting

    No longer Coasting

    It should come as no surprise that I liked the idea behind Shimano’s Coasting group when it was announced about 4 years ago. I first mentioned in a May 2006 post that, despite the general negative reaction from many cycling enthusiasts to the look of the group, it was great to see Shimano making “an…

  • Photos from the 2010 Taipei Cycle Show

    Photos from the 2010 Taipei Cycle Show

    I mentioned the winners of the International Bicycle Design Competition in my post last Thursday. I couldn’t find many good photos of the finalists online at the time, but that has changed in the last few days. Eric Stoddard is now home from the show, and has posted many photos from Taipei to his Flickr…