Wood Bikes

While the idea of a wooden bike is certainly nothing new (illustrated above). It seems the design possibilities of wood are just begging to be fully exploited. I don't doubt that the bikes in the above photo are inspired by modern creations of the industrialized world, I do acknowledge the possibility they are an indigenous invention however unlikely that may be. These bikes also lack one key feature the modern bike, drive trains and are basically glorified scooters with seats. They do however seem to have a foot articulated brake, which reinforces my notion that they are made primarily for down hill use.

More advanced wooden bikes seem to have woo,d only in the frame. These three examples illustrate woods potential to build highly functional modern bikes. The above bike even incorporates the natural flex in wood to creat a full suspension frame, without the use of a rear shock.


There are even tandems made out of wood, like this bike built by a German college student Jens Eichler (the guy riding in front) . It's called Renovatia.



However it seems that, until now its been thought impossible to build a fully functional bike completely out of wood. 16 year-old high school student Marco Facciola built a bike out of wood, completely. Pretty damn impressive. "Marco had to complete this as a non-academic project for his International Baccalaureate, and inspiration came from his grandfather, forced to make wooden wheels for his bike during the war due to rubber shortages."


These closeups of the drive train and free wheel are the most impressive.

Street Art

Bybicycle Garbage Man

garbage man on a bike, actually a pretty good idea for inenr cities if you think about it. I don't think it would be high on the list of rigs I would like to pilot though.


This one on the other hand is actually kind of cool, and would be a pretty fun way to travel around. That guy is so relaxed he actualy looks like he is sleeping.

Visions

Travel: Jamestown Rhode Island

I visited James town this summer. Its a small island in the middle of Narragansett Bay. I went there to scout of possibilities for surf, but when I got there I realized its an ideal place to take a vacation and do some bike touring of the island. Needless to say its a small island, and you could probably ride around it five times in one day but there are many beaches, coves, and back roads to keep you busy. One thing the island lacks is any significant climbing, with the highest point being only a couple hundred feet, which depending on your out look is either a good or a bad thing. The real appeal of the island for cycling is its lack of traffic, with a small local population many of whom make tips by bike the streets are quite.


This is also due to the fact that the island is crossed over by a major highway and is considered by most motorist a landing point between two bridges. Most people that drive through don't bother to stop and get off the high way, as most of them are commuting from New Port to Narragansett or Providence. Another factor that deters people from driving there is to get to the island you have to pay a toll to use the bridge, which is something like a 1.25. Defiantly a cool place to check out, I will be out there is summer for sure.

Reveng of The Nerds & Robots

Theres nothing I can say to really make this funnier. Just look, and then take a second to really think about what your seeing.

I like track bikes & Prince

Custom Builds: Gone Horribly Wrong

When I first saw this photo, I actually thought it was a motorcycle and not a bike. Well at least I hoped it was, somewhere inside I didn't want to admit to myself that someone could build bike a this horrible. But my eyes could not hide from the truth in front of them, there was indeed no engine, and in its place a set of cranks. I asked my self but why?



And then there was this bike. This is hand made carbon fiber build, normally I'm not a proponent of euthanasia, someone please put this bike out of its misery.

If You Lived Here...

Anyone know a good way to rig a bike rack to a row boat?

Insanely Specd Bike

I saw this bike on an online bike forum Cyclofined for strange bikes which could find no other home online. The bikes owner said he named this bike "B" - short for Beatrice after the svelte, lethal beauty of "Kill Bill". I somehow question if you could actually refer to this bike as being either svelte or lethal, it is however rolling on Aerospokes and if you look closely you'll even see a shiny new xtr derailleur hanging off the frame. I think if anything this bike can only describe things about its owner who must be insane. My suspicions were further reinforced by by this statement regarding the bells on his bicycle,

"Gremlin Bell - So the story goes; Evil Road Gremlins plague bicyclers and often attach themselves to bikes. In fact, Road Gremlins are responsible for most bikes problems. As it turns out, they can't bear the presence of a bell. They get trapped in the hollow of the bell and the constant ringing of the bell drives them insane. They lose their grip and fall to the roadway, creating potholes when they hit the surface. The potholes are proof that Gremlin Bells do their job!"

Bad Collabo: Of Expensive Jeans and Top Tube Pads

Canondale just released this collaboration with RAW denim. Its funny because they took something that was almost a pretty cool bike and made it god awfully stupid by doing things like:

adding-
"specially produced brown Vredestein tyres and the RAW denim top and seat tube cover."

hyping-
" G-Star will unveil RAW CANNONDALE to the fashion world during the BREAD & BUTTER BARCELONA tradeshow in January 08."

and my personal favorite-
"A further exclusive offering with every bike is a unique RAW CANNONDALE jacket."

Seperation Anxiety

Commuting to work, the store, or even the beach by bike you will inevitably face the moment where you and your bike need to part ways for some substantially amount of time. If you live in the city this can be especially difficult, inside somewhere you know that this could be the last time you see your bike. Even as you lock bike to something which seems sturdy, you know that lock can be broken if someone wants to bad enough. I for one am lucky though, I can bring my bike right into my office and park it in complete safety next to the office beach cruiser. bike hugger. had an interesting post today about commuting and what to do with your bike while at work. In London they are trying to find ways to alleviate the problem and construct bike stations.

A chain of cycle "stations" - each with secure bike parking as well as shower and changing facilities - could appear across London.

At the same time bike snob. was posting about how

"A popular local non-cycling publication called The New York Times is reporting that the 34th Street Partnership is attempting to create a bike parking lot in midtown Manhattan, "

A Bike Garage in Amsterdam

This inevitably brought up many questions about the price, theft, and possibility of membership. I do however have what I think to be a pretty good theoretical system going in my head. By this I mean it relies on the existence of a well constructed city bike garage, a reasonably competent staff, a simple but reliable computer system. So here it goes.



1. You construct a bike garage with only one possible point of exit and entry

2. You have a full time gate attendant

3. Upon entry to the garage you either- press a button for a ticket, which triggers the built in camera system to take several digital photos of you and your bike.

or you swipe your member card which keeps on file your personal info, photo ID and images and descriptions of all the bikes you own.

4. Enter the garage lock your bike to one of the abundant spots

5. Upon leaving you either- give the attendant your card, he or she feeds it into the computer. The Computer then tells your length of stay and loads the images taken earlier of your arrival, so your attendant knows you are leaving with your bike.

or you give your member card triggering the same process.

6. Ride away and enjoy the rest of your day

So theres my idea, its pretty simple I hope someone builds it and its catches on.
And so to keep with the theme of todays post here some cool, to very crazy bike rack images I have come across.

Something to Think about

While researching imagery for Saudi Arabia, for a project at work involving a graphic user interface (GUI) for Saudi Airlines a branch of the parent company THALES, I came across this image. The people protesting are clearly Saudi Arbains dissatisfied with their royal families involvement in the funding of terrorism. Clearly they are just stating the obvious, what any sense able person would be able to see, unless of coarse you happen to be a member of the US government, who cannot see beyond the Saudi oil fields and fat checks. This attitude is clearly illustrated by this picture below, where the king of Saudi Arabia can clearly be seen with the American prince.

Series 13 is Awesome

Series 13.by Burton lets you design your own graphics and build your own snowboard to your own specifications, there is a web app which lets you design and submit the boards to the contest. Each year Burton will pick one winner, based on who designs the best graphics and build there board for free, you even get flown to Vermont to pick it up in person. Here is one of my entries.

Billabong is ripping people off

I saw this photo posted on John Prolly's blog, prolly is not probably. Being a graphic designer my self I think it is prety messed up, Johny cupcakes posted this on his blog


Above you can see my original golden tooth Johnny Cupcakes design, which was created and released in 2005. It was featured in many magazines, blogs, and even seen on television. Next to it you'll see something very similar.

Anyways, a ton of my loyal fans just sent me some different links to this new shirt that Billabong JUST released, called "Billabong Bling Bling". Looks familiar, eh? It's the exact same thing, minus the cupcake! Look at the teeth, look at the bottom row of teeth. With them being a bazillion dollar corporation, you figured they could of at least changed it around a little bit, or hired a decent designer. I guess they had to do this so that all the other corporate giants wouldn't pick on them for not being bully enough. Tssk Tsk!

Please spread the word on this not so good situation / "coincidence" via blogs, myspace, facebook, etc.. The truth MUST be told about this type of nonsense! (Feel free to use the photo & info above.)

Here's Billabong's info. Please tell them how you feel.
Billabong
International and Australia Head Office
1 Billabong Place
Burleigh Heads QLD 4220
PH: +61 7 55 899 899
FAX: +61 7 55 899 800
EMAIL: info@billabong.com.au

More cool things that fold, from Germany

This is a folding table design concept created at KISD. in Germany, check out the rest of the projects here. I realy like the way they were able to bring together functionality and elegant design into one sleek and still utilitarian package.

Utlity Bikes

This fist photo is a picture of my commuter bike. I use it for getting to work in the winter when the days are short and its dark out by the time I get out of work. With this bike I am not worried about it when I put it on the front of a buss, or lock it up to a pool, as I would be with my road bike (pictured below) in the same situation.

While my commuter bike may have some advantages in the area of practicality, and all weather safety, wider 700 x 28 tires with some tread and disc brakes. To put it bluntly its heavy, full 10 pounds heavier than my 16 pound road bike, which ends up being a big deal on my 20 mile round trip commute in on Hilly Southern California PCH through Laguna Beach. Go 10 miles at 18 to 20 mph with 5 back to back 200 to 300 foot hill climbs and your legs with miss your carbon fiber road bike, where the same stretch of road is merely a warm up for the next 60 miles.

So what about bikes that fall somewhere in the middle? There are a few, many of the made in Europe. The dutch are famous for their utility bikes, but the lowlands are notoriously flat, and their bikes end up being notoriously heavy.

There are also cycle cross bikes, but due to UCI regulations disc brakes are illegal. Therefore there are very few high end road bikes that feature disc brakes, which are good for all weather safety and and confident stopping with heavy loads. After I have been ridding my Kona allot it takes me a little time to adjust back to my campy chorus caliper brakes. There are however some bikes out there which do seems to cross between both worlds. After check Cube's. urban bike concept posted yesterday, a few other other bikes caught my eye from their world travel series

Stylish Folding Concept

I first spotted this one on bicycle design blog. I immediately thought it looked like a very slick well thought out city bike. Aesthetically spot on, even though it somewhat resembled the design on the loathsome soft ride, road bikes. My first impression told me this bike is different the disc brakes, what appears to be 700c wheels, and the all enclosed internal gearing drive train all lead me to this conclusion.

However I was still curious about the design and followed some links to the company site, which I will post more on later, to learn more about the design. This design also looked like it might be fold able, my suspicion was confirmed when I found the page on the company site featuring the bike, unfortunately is was only in the German section so i can't tell you much about what it said. I was however able to get some screen grabs and string together a folding sequence.

I would definitely like to seem more bikes designed like this one, not even necessarily folding bikes. Just more cool high end utility bikes for every day ridding and touring.