For the sake of environment and exercise, more and more people choose to use bikes, especially at weekends?. Having a stylish bike has become a kind of trend. Due to that reason, lots of effort is put to create functional and fashionable bikes. We try to present you with some unusual and creative and functional designs collected from world. All those cool stuff will be introduced in several issues and there is the first:
1. Innovative Folding Bicycle Design [link]
The Contortionist is a folding bike created by 24-year-old Royal College of Art student Dominic Hargreaves. It’s got quite a beautiful design, but what makes it extra special is that the whole thing folds into a package that fits inside the 26-inch wheels. It’s the best of both worlds: It folds down to a small enough package that you can easily carry or store it, but it doesn’t have the ride quality problems that make tiny-wheeled folding bikes unattractive to many. You really need to see the video of the Contortionist in action (below) to see how brilliant it is!
2. LED Bike Wheel Video Display System [link]
MonkeyLectric have developed an innovative bike wheel display system that allows cyclists to show stabilized images and videos on spinning wheels. 32 of the brightest full color LEDs available, and cutting edge visual effects custom designed by our electronic artists.
The system uses 256 ultra-bright LED?s to display full color moving images. It functions at bike speeds between 12 to 40 km/h and is suitable for all weather conditions on city streets.
3. X-bike [link]
Introduce a bike, The X-bike. This was to have small wheels - essential elements when trying to save weight and space on a folding bike.
The frame - two main frame elements fold in a scissor action by a skew joint. This allows the wheels to fold side by side.
Steering - C this was by auto-tensioned cables via variable ratio pulleys. These provide a good steering feel to hub-centre steering.
Drive - this was by internal belt or miniature chain.
Construction - this uses injection-moulded long fibre carbon and glass shells ultra-sonically welded together. Fusible core, foam and gas injection technologies were also used.
Tyres - solid tyres were developed as an option with PU versions performing better than pneumatic equivalents.
This project was undertaken in collaboration with David Southward (CCL founder) and Shaun Househam.
4. Pulse: a new urban bike concept from Teague [link]
Pulse, Teague’s new concept for an urban bike, addresses all the necessities of a standard bike commute. Taking cues from both fixed gears and cafe-racers, Its features include electric turn signals controlled from the handlebars and a luminescent frame that lights up when you need it. We especially love the specialized caged bike pedals–they’re counterweighted to always sit “the right way round,” allowing the rider to benefit from their three-fold increase in efficiency without suffering from having to clip into upside down pedals at every stoplight.
5 .forkless bike [link]
An unusual bike design, ?Forkless ? Cruiser? by Olli Erkkila. He built it for his graduation project at the Institute of Design in Lahti, Finland.
Visually cool… but the designer doesn’t explain why he design it like that.
6. BauBike by Michael Ubbesen Jakobsen [link]
The BauBike is inspired by Bauhaus design. It is constructed around the geometric shape of the square and the equilateral triangle. The design is stripped down to clean lines and raw material. The open-end piece above the back wheel, offers the possibility to customize the function of the bike to whatever need you may have. The different accessories can be placed in the tube and can easily be changed if needed. The design follows a set of formal rules, limiting the geometry to straight lines in a pattern of 60 and 90 degree angles in proportions following the principle of the golden section.
