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2009 in review

Wow, it is hard to believe that it is the last day of 2009...where did the year go? The year's end is a good time to take a look at Google Analytics and see what has been happening with the blog this past year. Almost 750,000 people visited Bicycle Design in 2009 from 204 different countries and territories. Nearly half of those visitors came from Google (with “bicycle design” as the top keywords by a large margin). Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and the other search engines also sent quite a few people to the site.

Not including search engines and social media sites, I want to recognize and thank the top 15 sites that referred traffic to Bicycle Design in 2009. In order, they were:

1. BentRider Online
2. Fat Cyclist
3. miBrujula (that one was a bit of a surprise to me)
4. Treehugger
5. Cyclelicious
6. Engadget
7. Vintage Cannondale
8. Bike Commuters
9. Urban Velo
10. London Cyclist
11. Bike Hacks
12. Bike Hugger
13. Rocbike
14. Cozy Beehive
15. Core 77

A few of the most visited posts in 2009 surprised me a little. Quite a few of these are older than this year, but the list is based on page views in the last 12 months. Again in order, they are:

1. Finalists in the commuter bike competition
2. Aluminum vs. carbon fiber vs. titanium
3. We have a winner!
4. A belt drive singlespeed
5. “Commuter bike for the masses” design competition
6. Create your own mutant bike
7. Top tube pads
8. Track bike or fixie
9. E-hub
10. Skua
11. Strida 5.0 review
12. Homemade carbon fiber bikes
13. A 7 pound road bike
14. Hubless wheels
15. Chrome Metropolis bag review

The stats don't tell the whole story though, so I will just say in summary that 2009 was a great year for Bicycle Design. 2010 will bring a big change for the blog...one that I think will make it much better, so I hope you will all continue to follow along. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

Photo credit: A elderly gent riding his penny farthing at the London New Years Day Parade 2008 by Swamibu on Flickr.

A naked bike and lots of links

I hope that you have been enjoying the holidays. I have been taking time off work to spend with my family, so the blog hasn't been getting much attention in the last week or so. That doesn't mean that the links haven't been coming in though, so today I want to quickly pass along several links that have come to my attention recently.

Murray is a reader who sends me links pretty often. He forwarded these pictures of a nice looking custom Naked bike with some interesting details.

A while back, Murray also sent me a link to this French electric hybrid bike, the Matra MS1.

Several readers let me know about Africa Bicycle Design's new blog. I will be following along as the design team chronicals the development of new bikes for a Cycling out of Poverty project in Kisumu, Kenya.

Before Christmas, BikeHugger was asking readers to submit questions for Trek's art director, Mike Pfaltzgraff. The deadline has been extended so hurry up if you have questions about the graphics that go onto Trek bikes.

Gizmodo posted a unicycle built for two. It certainly doesn't look easy to use, especially with riders of different weights.

Good.is posted an article titled, “What the bicycle can teach us about the design challenges of the next century".

Don't fall for this claim from Ritte Racing that the UCI banned their bike for “being too good looking”. It is pretty funny though...good marketing for the bikes too. Via Cyclelicious.

Airnimal just released a new fixed gear folding bike that I think looks pretty nice. I would love to have something like this for travel.

Seth pointed out this student designed wooden recumbent trike that is worth checking out.

Wend Magazine tells us that the “The Dweeb-Free Bicycle Helmet is Finally Here”. I am not so sure about that, but take a look and decide for yourself.

Inhabitat posted about a “Recycled Christmas Tree Made of Bike Wheels”. It reminded me of our Bikeville parade float from last year, which featured different diameter wheels to make up the tree.

OK, I will close this post with that last Christmas themed link. I need to get back to the framesets that I am building up with my 11 year old. I was a little nervous yesterday watching him thread a bottom bracket into a new aluminum frame, but we are having a lot of fun assembling the bikes together.

Photo credit: Swhittingham on Flickr

New bikes from Le Batard and a few old ones

I mentioned "Le Batard” custom bikes in an earlier post. The B2O bamboo bike that I mentioned in that post will be launched in February as a limited edition series of 50. Le Batard custom cycles also has a couple of other bikes in the works, which I will share in this post. The time trial "enhanced version" (pictured here) features a polished aluminum frame. The stem, bars and levers are all custom made to match the frameset. Le Batard points out that the design of the stem, which you can see in this detail shot, is a tribute to Rene Herse.

The “air-bike” is a small folding bike concept by French designer Sylvio Beraka. The prototype, which was made by Le Batard, has an aluminium frame, 24" wheels, double kevlar drive belt and a SRAM P5 hub with a coaster brake. You can download a pdf about the concept from Beraka’s website if you are interested in reading more. At first glance, the air-bike might remind you of that jruiter studio bike that has been all over the web lately. Certainly, the two bikes have a similar appearance due to their ultra short wheelbases and rider positions directly over the rear wheel. That must be a trend, because I noticed one other urban bike with a really short wheelbase recently. OK, maybe that last one is a bit older than the other two. It does look like it would make a great wheelie machine though (hence the name Bronco). I would love to see a picture from the late 1800s of a trick rider on one of those little bikes.

Speaking of old bikes, take a look at this nicely curved Cygnet from 1898. It looks a little bit like the Cannondale Dutchess, a fact that Wytze (the designer of the Dutchess) mentioned recently on Twitter after seeing a picture of the Cygnet. While you are at it, take a look at some of the other interesting antique bikes in the Pryor Dodge Collection. I never get tired of looking at bike designs from 100 years ago.

The Copenhagen Wheel

“Transform your ordinary bicycle into a hybrid e-bike that also provides feedback on pollution, traffic congestion and road conditions in real time!”

That is the opening statement on the website for the Copenhagen Wheel, a project by MIT’s SENSEable City Laboratory. With a claim like that, it is no wonder the project has been getting so much attention on the web since its debut at the COP15 climate Summit in Copenhagen a couple of days ago. Like the Sanyo Eneloop bike that I mentioned last year, this design stores kinetic energy from braking for future use by way of technology similar to the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which has changed Formula One racing dramatically in recent years. Unlike the Sanyo bike though, this design stores that energy in a battery that is contained in the wheel, not on the frame of the bicycle. For that reason the Copenhagen Wheel is retrofitable on any type of bike (including the Cinelli Mystic pictured here courtesy of the SENSEable City Lab’s website).

In addition to a battery and motor, the Copenhagen Wheel has a variety of other functions that are hidden within the oversized red hub. By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user's iPhone, the wheel can monitor the bicycle's speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as collect data on air pollution and even the proximity of the rider's friends.

"One of the applications that we have discussed with the City of Copenhagen is that of an incentive scheme whereby citizens collect Green Miles - something similar to frequent flyer miles, but good for the environment," says Christine Outram, who led the team of researchers at MIT.

You can read more about the technology, and the team’s ideas behind the design, at the MIT Media Relations site.

The idea of storing braking or downhill coasting energy, and using that energy for a burst of speed later is nothing new. Whitt and Wilson’s 1982 book, Bicycling Science (coincidently…or not… published by The MIT Press), discusses energy storage systems going back many years. Thirty plus years ago, the most successful designs used flywheels to store energy (as opposed to those systems which relied on elastic bands or springs). Flywheels are heavy though, so the practical application for bicycles was pretty limited. Even with modern technology, some would argue that practical applications of energy storage systems are still debatable. In a New York Times article about the Copenhagen Wheel, Dr. William Mitchell, who runs another lab at M.I.T. called SmartCities, is quoted as saying:

“Regenerative braking hardware adds mass, complexity and cost, and the energy efficiency gains from it turn out to be surprisingly limited."

Steve Hed and Jens Martin Skibsted are also quoted in that NY Times article, so be sure to read it for a different perspective than you get from the MIT press releases. Another place to read about the Copenhagen Wheel is TreeHugger. They mentioned it in a post along with 4 other bike solutions spotted at COP-15.

Not related to the wheel, but while I am throwing out Copenhagen related links, I’ll mention this StreetFilms video which features Mikael Colville-Anderson from Copenhaganize talking about bicycle infrastructure projects in that city. Great stuff! Watching that video akes me want to visit Copenhagen all the more.

Winners of the CPH Bike-Share Competition

I was working out of town last week and didn’t get a chance to write anything on the blog. The preceding week was pretty hectic too, so posting has been especially light at Bicycle Design of late. I guess it is just this time of year. I have been really busy at home and at work, so it is hard to find a little extra time to write about bikes. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot of bicycle design related info to pass along though. I really appreciate all the tips that I have received from readers the last couple weeks. It may take a while to get to all of those messages though, so please bear with me if I am a little slow to respond.

One topic that many of you shared with me last week was the announcement of winners in the Copenhagen Bike-Share Design Competition, which took place during the COP15 climate summit. Two readers who alerted me to the announcement happened to be the first place winners (yes, there were 2 first place prizes awarded). You may remember Erik Nohlin as a finalist in the commuter bike design competition that I staged last year. He now works for LOTS Design and was part of the team that created the OPENbike. Read more about their winning design below:

"LOTS Design (Gothenburg), Koucky & Partners (Gothenburg) and Green Idea Factory (Berlin) teamed up to design an innovative bike sharing system for the City of Copenhagen. The team’s entry, called OPENbike, was yesterday awarded a first price at the city’s international design competition with 127 entries.

The City of Copenhagen, one of the world leading cycling cities, aims at establishing a new bike share system and has therefore initiated an open international design competition.

The winning entry, called OPENbike, puts the user in the centre and proposes a system that is easy to use, flexible and fully scalable. The design goal has been to create a system that seamlessly integrates with public transport and becomes a natural part of Copenhagen’s existing bicycle culture. The system proposes a smart card system and positioning solutions integrated in each bicycle to create a fully floating bike share system. OPENbike does therefore not need special stands and bicycles can easily be repositioned and adapted to the cities changing needs."

The other 1st place prize went to Thomas Coulbeaut for his Myloop design, which uses a docking station that secures the bike and recharges it when it’s not in use. The docking solution takes up very little space and has virtualy unlimited capacity due to the fact that the bicycles can be locked to one another. The design allows for a lot of flexibility in the way the stations are configured… a feature that the competition jurors seemed to like.

On the CPH Bike Share Competition website, you can download pdfs with more information about the winners or any of the 127 entries. I encourage you to click around and read about some of the different ideas. Also, be sure to take a look at this Copenhagenize post, which features a 20-minute video of the awards ceremony.

Another good source for information about bike sharing programs in general is The Bike-sharing Blog. Russell was one of the readers who sent me a tip about the CPH winners last week, and his blog is one that I will continue to watch.

Finally, on the subject of bike sharing, I will mention that Greenville, SC (where I live) is in the number 1 spot on the B-cycle “Who wants it more?” map. Pretty cool for a little town with a population of around 60,000 people! I am certainly a big supporter of a bike sharing program here, and look forward to that becoming a reality soon.

Since I mentioned Greenville, I also want to share some pictures of the Bikeville group setting up for, and riding in, the Downtown Greenville Christmas Parade. We had a “Share the Road” theme for our bicycle-powered float this year. Despite a few minor challenges keeping one of our bike riding mannequins upright, I think it went pretty well. In addition to the photos, you can check out a few videos that I shot that night. The one that I filmed while riding is a little shaky, but still worth watching. Check out the conference bike going from one side to the other...definitely a crowd favorite.

rafael r-011

I mentioned German architect Rafael Hoffleit’s custom carbon frames in an earlier post. His r-009 road bike caught my attention before, so I was very excited to see his new time trial bike, the r-011. The bike has an “integrated hydration and steering system, which allows the use of standard cable shifter systems totally hidden inside the stem and frame.” The “Fluid” hydration system is open at the top and can be refilled while riding. It is also easy removable for cleaning or for UCI races where the extended headtube fairing is not allowed. Like the r-008 and r-009 frames, the r-011 has double chamber tubes for lateral stiffness. Also like other rafael frames, the r-011 contains no metal at all - even the bearing housing is carbon. Rafael points out that his special mold system allows flexibility in tailoring the bike to the intended use. The frame can be created with a higher front end, which allows triathletes to sit comfortably without the use of spacers under the armrests, or it can be configured with a deeper straight stem/ top tube position for flat out time trialing.

Though Mr. Hoffleit is primarily an architect who creates these bikes as a side project, these are far from just concept bikes. All of the bikes he builds are working race machines… in fact, on his website you can see custom painted r-011s that were recently raced in the 2009 Challenge Barcelona and the 2009 Ironman Frankfort. Hoffleit told me that he built his first bike (a recumbent) at age 9, so the bicycles he creates are the result of a lifelong passion. The majority of bikes that he has designed so far are aerodynamic race models due to his interest in the sports of cycling and triathlon, but he plans to build additional bikes soon, including a folding bike and a recumbent. Check the concepts section of the Rafael site to see what else he has in the works. If the racing bikes are any indication, I’ll be looking forward to seeing the other types of bikes that he comes up with in the future.

While I am posting, I will mention another interesting road bike out of Germany. Ron at Cozy Beehive posted about this homemade electronic shifting bike a while ago. In addition to the e-shifting system, the frame and wheels are home built as well. Check out Ron's follow-up post to learn more about the bike