Let's Build a Bike!

This last year has taken the cycling world back to the drawing board to try to attract more people to the saddle rather than the car seat.  Many of these projects have brought out a number of ideas, but none as fabulous or impressive as my own...

Alright, maybe I do not have an original idea that is a fix all solution to get everyone riding a bike.  Does it have to be an original idea though?  Why do we need to reinvent the bicycle when we can just take the best ideas and put them all together in one?  Lets get some perspective on my point though first.

The Oregon Manifest may have been in itself, a silly idea, in which I mean that their purpose was to redesign cargo bikes to increase bicycle use, because, yeah more cargo space on a bike will obviously replace an SUV in the minds of Americans.  I will concede that while silly, it may have been a necessary step towards actually being productive to get more people on a bike.  But an idea of such lofty goals can sometimes bring out the extremes of design from "didn't we already try that", to "wow, that's awesome".

Photo Credit OregonManifest.com

The winner of the manifest design challenge was Tony Pereira.  His pink bike with what looks like the Hulk's lunch box mounted on the front, won the challenge with an amazing never before seen concept.  It is a box with speakers mounted in it.  The bike also has an electric assist drive train which has already become a fairly common design idea, but it also feeds USB charging ports in the box.  The black box was touted as a way to bring drivers out of cars and offer familiar conveniences on a bike. 

This discrete and sleek design (cough, cough) is the Oregon Manifests choice for what future bike designs should strive for.  Do you see now why I think that there is something askew here?  No?  Well, let's consider the Huffy radiobike from 1955.  The Radiobike came with a battery power pack (located on rear rack) the size of a brick.  This powered an A.M. radio and a headlight.

Photo: LIFE 

Notice the lack of a giant black box.  Even with it's ancient electronics and battery it serves much the same purpose with a less invasive design.  Swap the battery for a modern one (likely smaller with better output), the radio for a usb hub and better speakers, switch the hub on the rear wheel with an electric drive and you have the same features offered on a 58 year old design.  And it looks better!  Compare them side by side below and the whole black box looks even more ridiculous.

Photos by IDEO

So let us move on.  Many of the bike designs looked very familiar in the sense of just about any touring bike.  Modified racks, added electrics, and integrated locks were popular design tweaks.  Most of the designs can be found in any bike shop already in some form or another.

The real innovation came from the creative collaboration portion of the event.  The Faraday (built by IDEO and Rock Lobster) design.  This bike won the peoples choice award of the event.  It is a modern update of a classic French style utility bike with an almost invisible electric drive system.  Instead of the cumbersome black box it has a front rack that can be quickly exchanged out for different styles depending on the cargo, stress; your choice.  It also sports built in high powered lighting, and custom hand made leather bag and grips.  

While better than the black box bike, this one learns from past design but lacks the fluff of the USB hub and electronics dashboard capability.  Real progress in these designs would be to use the old Radiobike idea, and combine them with the Faraday and The Local (pictured below).  Just insert the modern equivalent electronics to the Radiobikes tank design into a less clumsy more solid improvement.  Using a design such as schwinn's cup holder into the top tube, but rather as a phone cradle or dock, and it becomes exactly the usable familiarity one could compare to a car.  Simple isn't it?  

THE LOCAL, 

BUILT BY FUSEPROJECT

AND SYCIP DESIGN

With other improvements to features being made to bikes, such as automatic transmissions, throwing a mix together to appeal to drivers that only travel a few miles should be very straight forward.  The previously mentioned "Local" (pictured at left) would be the alternative to those needing more grocery or cargo space for downtown shopping trips.

Since I am not a frame builder it isn't likely that one of these Frankenstein ideas of mine will be built unless someone of frame building skill wants to take the idea.  As I said, it is just an accumulation of designs, but if you do, just give me credit for the idea, and send me one of the finished bikes please (Orange paint proffered).