Another anti theft bike light project currently underway is a collaboration between GOOD Magazine and Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries.  Similar to the mountain bike project mentioned in my last post, this is a crowdsourced design project that they are calling Product of the People. The project just kicked off, but they have a few early concept sketches posted. They are asking for feedback on the designs, so leave a comment on the original post to let them know what you think.

One of the commenters to the GOOD post pointed out the LightSkin seatpost, which features 5 integrated LED lights. The design won a reddot award in 2010, and definitely addresses the light theft problem. Of course, seat and seatpost theft is still an issue with LightSkin or any of the other products mentioned here. In places where theft is common, you often see bikes with chain between the seat rails and seatstays or with a ball bearing glued in the head of the binder’s allen bolt. Neither of those solutions is ideal though, so I would suggest investing in a seatpost clamp like this one to protect that expensive theft resistant light.

MTB-News.de is a German online magazine and forum.  Currently, they have a project in the works to design and develop a ‘crowdsourced’ mountain bike.  Thomas Paatz, one of the site’s editors, explains:

“We have split the whole process of developing a bicycle into several steps (how much travel, which wheel-size, which kind of suspension, graphics, name……), our users discuss the single steps and there are weekly polls, then we move on to the next topic. We have one bike designer (Stefan, he developed e.g. the Kona Satori, Alutec Fanes among others) and one product manager (Sebastian, Product manager with Carver, the producer of the Bike which is currently developed), they answer questions in the corresponding forum threads and evaluate for example which of the proposals make sense and which ones not.

The engagement of our users is extremely high. Different concepts were developed, sketches drawn, users proposed and voted on items in a product requirements document and so on.”

It is an interesting project, and I am looking forward to seeing how the bike turns out.

Apparently, the designers at Audi were pretty serious about creating what design director Wolfgang Egger referred to as “a high-performance e-bike for sports and trick cycling.  During the development process, professional motorbike trials rider Julien Dupont rode the e-bike and offered his feedback. When the bike is publically unveiled at the Wörthersee VW and Audi car show in Austria this week, Dupont and downhiller Petra Bernhard will be there to demonstrate its capability as a trick bike. Perhaps the most interesting feature is the smartphone interface, which provides “coaching for learning and documenting trick riding” according to a post at PSFK. “The cyclist’s smartphone hooks up by WLAN to the computer – when you start cycling, for example, the immobilizer is deactivated. Video images of the trial drive or of a trick, as recorded via the in-helmet camera, are uploaded to the Internet in real time via your smartphone.”

I won’t get into much detail about the bike itself, as PSFK, designboom, Inhabitat, and others have already written much on the subject. I am interested in Audi’s decision to devote design resources to a ‘sport’ oriented bike though. With many other car companies testing the waters of the urban e-bike market, I do think it is quite interesting though that Audi designed something specifically for the tricks and trials riding niche. Perhaps this concept bike, which unlike the Audi branded Renovo wooden bikes was designed and developed by the automaker’s talented internal design group, is just to gain a bit of attention for the company as the designers familiarize themselves with the technology. Maybe we will see a transportation oriented e-bike concept from Audi soon (something to compete with the Specialized Turbo perhaps). In the mean time, it will be interesting to see how this bike will be received by the car enthusiasts who attend the auto show in Austria this week. My guess is that impressive choreographed tricks will hold the attention of Audi fans much more than a presentation on the green credentials of e-bikes as a transportation category. I don’t know if that is what Audi has in mind…but it certainly makes sense to me. Now let’s just hope that the next e-bike that they design is geared toward replacing one of their cars for short urban trips. I wouldn’t be too surprised if that is in the works.

After the finalists and winner were announced in the first Bicycle Design competition in 2008/2009, I posted quite a few of the other entries. I didn’t post them all though, so I want to go back and share a few more of those old entries today. For the first two, the designers’ text from the entry is included to describe the concept. The third concept, by Jeff Kaminsky, has all of the text included in his image boards.

Ryan Lee’s commuter bike

The images created for this concept were to show ideas for refinement and development rather than styling. I commute to and from work on my bike and found the following issues a concern:

-Juggling the lock, and the bike, and the cable when I arrive/leave the bike rack

-Having the lock wrapped around my bars/frame/etc.

-Having add on lights that are not integrated, need battery changes and can be easily stolen

-Oiling the chain after days of rain, and the chance of getting oil on my clothes

-Increasing the potential of theft by having the fancier looking bike in the rack

The concept ideas address these, and are feasible enough that developing and refining them do not seem a stretch of the imagination. An inconspicuous diamond frame lets the bike blend in with others. A cable lock resides in an extruded top tube profile (low tooling costs). This cable lock is held in place by an elastomeric extrusion and female receptacle. A second, locking female receptacle is on the seat tube. The key for this lock is the same as the locks on the hubs.  Integrated, solar powered lights reduce accessory theft. A belt driving a hub with internal gears reduces maintenance concerns.

Cengiz Ekmekci’s Logic Bike

Some of the design goals of this project includes:

-provide unique qualities that would attract not only current bike users’ attention but also non-biker’s as well.

-user friendliness with easy maintenance

-adjustability for all sizes of people.

-5 speed (in the hub), automatic control*

-The bike requires 1 compact Li-on battery, which is located in the Frt. Frame. Electric charge for the battery is provided by in frt. Hub generator.

- It is fair to say that popular 24, 18 speed manual systems in the market are not being used with a clear understanding.  In that sense, automatic system can re-revolutionize the way the bikes are conceived.

*Detailed info on automatic control system is not provided (due to the fact that it is not registered for a pattern yet).  5-speed manual system can be considered as optional as well.

Jeff Kaminsky’s recycled Cycle

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 of the aero frameset from NeilPryde. While you are on the Behance site, take a minute to check out a few of the other bike projects that are featured there.

I was a huge Cinelli fan in the 80’s (back when I dreamed of owning a Laser), so I am pretty excited about a new book titled, Cinelli: The Art and Design of the Bicycle. It comes out this fall, and you can bet that I will be adding it to my collection.

Awwwards is a site “which recognizes and promotes the best web designers in the world.” Recently, they posted a nice collection of well-designed bike industry websites. Via Loving The Bike.

Star-Turn, an art exhibition by British lighting designer Bruce Munro is completely pedal powered. Read more about it at the Pegasus lighting blog and at Discovery.com.

Finally, I want to mention a new design competition from B’Twin and Local Motors to create “a lightweight, customizable, urban friendly tricycle that can accommodate two driving positions, provides electric-assist and protection from weather and collision, can be connected to a smartphone, and can fold up to ease parking.” You can read the design brief here and out more at Yannig Roth’s post on the subject.

You can browse through Schultz’s portfolio to see a few of his past designs for the bike industry, including the Mantis Screaming V from the mid 90s. Today I want to spotlight one of his recent bike designs though… a concept bike that was recently chosen as a finalist in the Fast Company / Porsche “Next Design Challenge”. As Schultz explained in his description of the concept, the belt-drive urban/commuter bike was designed to share the core attributes of the classic Porsche 911: “light, fast, simple, durable, timeless”. He goes on to point out that, “the Porsche iconic design details are all integrated, functional components of the design- not styling add-ons. The frame profile reflects the classic 911 glass silhouette, yet still forms a traditional double-diamond bike frame for strength, stiffness & low stand-over height. The belt drive & 8-speed hub deliver the performance expected of a Porsche-branded bike, without the maintenance issues of chains & derailleurs.”

In addition to the images shown here, you can find a few more renderings and the full description from his contest submission on Schultz’s Behance page for the project.

The design of the unevenly spaced 4 bolt crankset is definitely different, and I suspect people will either love it or hate it. Personally I like the look of it, though it is another nonstandard chainring bolt pattern. Hopefully this new crank will use a common bolt circle diameter for compact and standard chainrings, which would make sense to me as I like to run both. An eleven speed cassette is something that I didn’t really want to see, but we all knew it was coming from Shimano soon. Enough from me though, let me know what you think of this group. Whether you like, dislike, or don’t care… share your thoughts in the comments.

Those memories immediately came flooding back when I started reading Italian Racing Bicycles: The People, The Products, The Passion by Guido Rubino. It is a beautiful 174 page hardcover coffee table book with hundreds of great photographs of Italian bikes and components from the turn of the century to today. It is much more than a nice looking coffee table book though. Sure, you could put it on display and only browse through it occasionally, but I would recommend reading it from cover to cover first. If you have an interest in Italian bicycles, you will enjoy the thorough background information about each of the 40 brands that are profiled in the book. The book features photographs of a few more modern bikes than I expected in each section, but overall I think the mix of old and new is well balanced. Each section starts with background information about the founder of the company, and follows the story through to the company’s present day operations. I had a rough idea about the origins of many of these companies, but I found much of the in-between history to be quite interesting; Campy making helicopter and satellite parts in the 70’s, Bianchi making Italian infantry bikes during World War I, or Wilier Triestina’s rebirth as a bicycle brand in the late 60’s after the factory had shifted to motorcycle manufacturing for nearly 20 years. It was also interesting to contrast the styles of the different companies. Brands like Cinelli, Moser, and later Bottecchia pushed the boundaries with innovative and experimental designs, while others built traditional steel frames that changed very little from decade to decade due to the fact that the geometries and techniques were shaped by many years of experience. Though the approaches were different, all of the brands are intertwined in the history of the Italian bicycle industry and the country’s rich racing heritage.

I would recommend this book to any of you who love Italian bikes, but I also think that someone with a general interest in bicycle history would enjoy it as well. The author, Guido Rubino, has been writing about cycling technology for many years for publications such as BiciSport, Cicloturismo, and MTB Magazine. He is also the author of La Bicicletta da Corsa and the coauthor, with Paolo Faccinetti, of Campagnolo: 75 years of Cycling passion. Suffice it to say, he knows the subject well and I think he did a good job condensing the history and essence of these iconic brands into a few pages each.

Disclaimer: To comply with FTC guidlines, I must let you know that this book was given to me to review by the publisher. No money changed hands, and I didn’t get a free custom Pegoretti out of the deal (bummer). Seriously, it’s a short but honest review of a book that I enjoyed…nothing more than that.

Robert Heim is an industrial designer from Germany who recently designed a commuter bike for his Master of Arts thesis project. He named the bike “Stadtstreber” (which roughly translate to “urban geek”), and his focus for the project was safety and usability. His design features integrated lights and an integrated lock, both of which he briefly explains in his description below:

“STADTSTREBER is a commuter bike concept. It is roadworthy equipped, maintenance-free, and has a simple and sporty appearance. Two headlights are integrated in the shift brake units. At the touch of a button the headlights changes into turn signals. The taillight with reflector and turn signals is integrated in the mudguard. All cables run protected inside the frame and the fork. A gearbox is placed at the bottom bracket. The chain runs protected against mud and water inside the chainstays. The tires have about half the volume of a regular one. They are filled with a sort of foam rubber instead of air, to make flat tires impossible. The two hub dynamos have integrated LEDs to illuminate the rims, which have a reflective coating for a better visibility in the dark. The mudguard on the rear is part of the frame and serves as a carrier. A special cable lock below the top tube protects the bike against thieves. Only one end needs to be opened to close the circle on the bike’s seat stays, a bicycle stand or on the lock itself.”

Finally, I want to mention Rollin’, a 2009 graduation project by German designer Moritz Menacher. The concept is origami inspired with a frame constructed from folded aluminum sheet metal. Be sure to see the sketches and paper models of the frame on the projects section of Menacher’s website. There is a video there that you will want to check out as well.

See more at Yanko Design.

A completely different project on Kickstarter right now is the Chalktrail by Scott Baumann. When I first saw it, I joked on Twitter that I was going to ditch my GPS in favor of this low tech way of recording all of my rides. All kidding aside, it does look like an interesting toy idea, but not one without safety concerns. As the first commenter on a Core77 post  points out, kids will naturally want to look behind them to see the lines that they are creating. That distraction is not necessarily a good thing when they should be learning to pay attention to the road (or the sidewalk). Maybe this would be a fun toy for a tricycle or scooter on a driveway, but I don’t think I would want my kids to venture any farther than that with it. I would still love to try it myself though. I just wonder how many chalk sticks it would take to mark a 50 mile ride.