Search results for: “blue ocean”
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A Leitra velomobile redesign by Kuba Szankowski
For his final project in Mechanical Engineering at the Danish Technical University, Israeli born Danish citizen Kuba Szankowski designed a velomobile based on the classic Leitra design. He worked closely on the project with Carl Georg Rasmussen of Leitra, who “at eighty years young still builds and maintains all the velomobiles, as well as most any…
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E-Trike by George Cooper
George Cooper is a recent Industrial Design graduate from the UK. For his final school project, he set out to design a human powered vehicle geared toward the majority of people who don’t currently cycle (that blue ocean that is mentioned here from time to time). His solution is an electric assist recumbent tricycle with…
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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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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…
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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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Does the bicycle industry need new ideas?
“The bicycle industry needs to move away from unsuitable sporty racing bikes and focus on the needs of non-enthusiasts if cycling is to become a mode of transport used by the majority.” That is the opening sentence in a Design Week (UK) cover story this week (which I discovered via Bike Biz). If you have…
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Bike day at Design*Sponge
I have mentioned Design*Sponge on this blog a couple times before. In a 2005 post, I referred to it as “one of my favorite non-bike blogs”. Five years later that is still true, so I was really glad to see that all of the D*S posts yesterday were dedicated to bikes. To kick off the…
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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…
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Customized city bikes from Beick
I first posted a design by Angelo Jansen (his GSUS concept bike) about two years ago. Since that time, Angelo has been working on another interesting design project. Beick.nl is a Dutch website where customers can customize and purchase the Beick city bike online. As you choose from the different options available, you see a…
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From the show floor of the Taipei Cycle show….
Note from James: In the last post, I introduced Eric Stoddard who shared some of his commentary from the IBDC awards. In this post, he is back with more thoughts and observations from the show floor in Taipei: We’ve been talking quite a bit about the Blue Ocean of potential cyclists that Mark Sanders described…
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Mark Sanders’ keynote presentation in Taipei
I don’t know if I mentioned it beforehand, but Mark Sanders was a keynote speaker at the Taipei Cycle Show yesterday. He spoke about his work as a bike designer, but the primary focus of his presentation was, in his words, “how alternative and universal bike design may be a help in attracting more people…
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Design competition follow up
I wanted the design competition to spark a conversation, and it has certainly done that. I had a feeling the winning entry might be slightly controversial, but I didn’t expect some of the really strong reactions that I have seen lately on my blog and elsewhere. I guess that is not all bad though. As…
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“Commuter bike for the masses” design competition
–enter for a chance to win a Cannondale Bad Boy bicycle- Those of us who are already cyclists know that riding a bicycle is one of the best ways to get around town. Infrastructure, enforcement, and general traffic safety issues may be the biggest obstacles to convincing people with no real interest in cycling to…
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Chinese folding bikes
My last post about commuter bikes for the masses generated some really good discussion from all of you. The discussion got me thinking- the “commuter bikes for the masses” concept would make a great design contest for the blog. I’ll let you know a little more about that soon, but start thinking about it now…
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Commuter bikes for the masses- any ideas?
It has been seven years in the making, but the bicycle commuter tax provision has finally passed both the House and Senate. President Bush signed it into law last Friday as part of the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” (read more about the Bicycle Commuter Benefits Act here, here, and here if you are…
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Strida MAS Special Signature Edition
I have time for one more post before my trip, so let me quickly pass a few more things along. You might remember when I tested a Strida 5.0 late last year. I liked the bike, but at 6’ 2”, I felt like I was a bit tall for it. That is why I was…
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Eurobike follow-up
As I mentioned in my last post, Eurobike was bigger than ever this year. According to the latest email newsletter from the show, they had a record attendance of 36,800 trade visitors from 75 countries over the last few days. On top of that, over 18,000 people walked though and checked out the bikes on…
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Guest post by Mark Sanders
Intro from James- Mark Sanders is a name that many of you will probably recognize. I have mentioned him and his Strida design on the blog several times. In addition to Strida, the UK based designer/ engineer has created many other interesting folding bikes. I admire his work, so I asked Mark to submit a…