Glow in the dark Puma

By now, you have probably already seen the glow in the dark Puma Urban Mobility bike made by Biomega. Ron sent me a link to this slamxhype post a couple days ago, but I didn’t get a chance to post it. Since then, I have noticed that it is getting a lot of coverage on the web. Check it out here, here, here, here, and here just to name a few places.

For anyone who doesn’t remember, I want to point out that this is not the first glow in the dark bike frame from Biomega. They released the MN02, designed by Marc Newson, with a glow in the dark frame option in the late nineties if I remember correctly. I always thought it was a good idea, so I am glad to see them bring it back. If the attention this glowing bike is getting in the blogosphere is any indication, Puma should do pretty well with the latest version of their folder.

Since I am mentioning the Puma bike, I will go ahead and point you to this Cool Hunting post from last week. Some of you might think the bike suffers from sticker overload, but the proceeds go to a great cause.

G-Star Raw Cannondale

You have probably already seen pictures of this bike. I saw it first at the Tusindsmil blog a few weeks ago and I meant to post about it, but I couldn’t read any of the text. Since then, I have seen it here, here, and here to name a few places.

I was curious about this limited edition G-Star Raw bike, so I asked Torgny Fjeldskaar, Cannondale’s global design director, to let me know a little more about this collaborative project with the clothing brand. Here is a little bit of what he had to say:

The whole thing came about because their owner is a big fan of Cannondale, so he wanted to do a project with us. The bike is based around a standard ’08 Bad Boy Ultra frame, but as you can see it’s really tricked out with a lot of color-matched parts and special finishes. The fenders and the chain-guard are both especially designed for this bike. My involvement was not much more than giving shape to the chain-fender (G-Star had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted, a raw, industrial look with big round holes) and of course the frame. Colors and graphics were decided by G-Star, and the biggest part of the job was actually to get custom parts. Our product managers deserve a lot of credit for making this happen, after all, it is not every day a huge company like Shimano makes 500 units of anything, let alone in a finish they’ve never used themselves…

So it sounds like G-Star knew exactly what they wanted this bike to look like and Cannondale was able to make it happen. Regardless of who did what with the design, I think the bike turned out very nice. Too bad they are only making 500 of them.

NAHMBS and more

It has been a theme lately, but once again, I am too way busy to think much about bicycle design or the blog. I have been slammed at work the last few weeks and a good portion of the small amount of time I have outside of work and family responsibilities is going toward local bicycle advocacy projects and other volunteer commitments. I have a lot going on right now and I am starting to wonder how long I can keep all this up. Still, bikes are pretty important to me (I bet you couldn’t figure that out), so I’ll do my best to keep all the balls I am juggling in the air. The Bicycle Design blog may be slow at times, but I won’t give up on it.

Anyway, I do want to quickly pass along a few links that you readers have been kind enough to send my way. For a while now, I have been meaning to mention that the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is coming up soon (Feb 8-10). Sure there will be a lot of handcrafted lugged steel frames, but the show is more than that. Just check out the photo of Brent Ruegamer’s blackbird concept bike from last years show if you have any doubts. You can see more shots of composite bikes from the 07 show on cyclingnews. I remembered seeing the Ruegamer bike last year, but thanks to Leslie for reminding me of it.

Jim sent me a link to a collapsible wheel concept for folding bikes. Read more about it here.

A few readers commented and one person emailed saying that the wood bike posts are getting old. If you are one of those people, don’t click this link that shows a wooden bike taken to the extreme. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Thanks to both Lawrence and Radio Freddy , who both sent me a tip on that one.

Finally, I have to mention the Design 21 bicycle design contest that Fritz and Sue both posted about. Read more about the contest on both of their blogs.

Now it’s back to the grindstone for me. Keep those tips coming.

Photo credit: James Huang for cycling news

Links to pass along

I am still quite busy catching up from last week, so it will take me a while to get through all of the blog related messages in my Gmail account. For now though, I want to quickly pass along just a few links that were sent by readers while I was away.

Jason sent me this link to a few folding bike concepts on Oobject (I may have already posted this but I can’t remember).

Mick works for Company of Cyclists and sent me a link to their website. They are a non-profit company that promotes cycling by traveling over the UK with a “fleet of around 400 cycles including a Conference Bike, a Zem, assorted Mike Burrows creations, a Maximus PediCab, a Pedersen, a Strida, Bromptons, an A-Bike, various recumbents and wacky bikes such as wobbly wheel bikes and backward pedal bikes.” Check out some of their megabikes here. If you live in the UK and want to try some of these bikes, find out when they will be near you at the Get Cycling Show site.

Fabrizio sent me a link to the Luna Lander, which is pictured here. To be honest, I am quite skeptical of revisions to rotational pedaling systems. In most cases, when someone comes out with a revolutionary new way to propel a bike, the roots of that design can be traced back to something that was tried without great success in the late 1800’s. At first glance, I was about to dismiss this as just another step-powered, lever drive transmission (remember the Alenax Transbar lever drive anyone?), but the “Gravitational Anthropomorphic Power Systems” appears to be something different (still based on a circular pedaling motion). I am still skeptical, but I will explore the site further and read the pdf that explains the idea when I have some time. The animated kinematics which simulate a human skeleton on a regular bike and a GAPS bike while “ignoring the tendon-ligament-muscle structure” are fun to watch, but I am not sure how relevant they really are to real world cycling conditions. The simple hinged rod jointed skeleton on top may look pretty bad on the bike, but keep in mind that he would just collapse walking or even standing without the muscles and tendons that make up the legs (not to mention kneecaps that prevent the joint from working in reverse). Anyway, like I said, I only glanced at the site quickly so I’ll reserve judgment until I explore further. In the mean time, I would love to hear from someone who has actually ridden one of these bikes. Can you feel a difference pedaling uphill? I may be skeptical but I am always curious, so I am interested in hearing more about the Luna Lander from someone who has ridden it.

Finally, to switch gears, I’ll point to the Unpainted Flickr photo pool from Sweatpea Bicycles. The group is intended to show the craft of handmade bikes. Anyone is welcome to post photos of bicycle frames before the paint goes on. Even if you aren’t a framebuilder with pictures to contribute, I think you will enjoy the photostream of bare frames. It’s a shame to cover some of those nice details with paint.

Design of the Arantix Mountain Bike

As most regular readers know, I am an industrial designer, but I do not work in the bicycle industry. As much as I enjoy writing about bikes a couple hours a week, my real job obviously has to take precedence over the blog, and any other bike related reading, when I get really busy. For the last week and a half, I was at a show where some of my new designs were released . Everything went well, but my schedule was extremely hectic to say the least. I was working long days and could barely keep up with my work email in my “spare” time, so I didn’t have time to check my blog or read any others. This morning, I checked the stats just to see if anyone was still reading Bicycle Design. Not only did the number of daily hits remain constant while I was away; I was surprised to see that the number of subscribers to the feedburner feed climbed firmly into 4-digit territory (1181 as of right now). Wow, I should stop writing more often. Seriously though, I appreciate the fact that so many of you read this blog on a regular basis and I hope you will continue to do so. The way Bicycle Design is growing each week; I won’t be surprised if the page hit counter hits the 1 million mark some time this year. I am constantly amazed by the blog’s growth, so I want to say again that I appreciate all of you who read the blog and comment regularly. Thanks.

As you can imagine, I am too busy now that I am back in my office to come up with any new content. Luckily, I have what I think is an interesting post from a guest contributor to share with you today. Tyler Evans is the Bicycle Program Manager at Delta 7 Sports in Payson, Utah. As an engineering student at Brigham Young several years ago, he designed an isotruss bike that has received a lot of press. The Arantix bike was shown at Interbike last year and received a good bit of attention on blogs and websites (see posts here, here, here, here, here, and here to point out just a few).

As I just pointed out, a lot of information about the Arantix bike is available on the web, but I asked Tyler if he could explain to Bicycle Design readers a little more about the development of the design and how it came to be. In addition to writing about the design history, Tyler included a bit of an explanation of the technology itself. What follows is Tyler’s essay, in its entirety. I am sure he can answer any questions you might have about the design, so feel free to leave a comment. Oh yeah, before I forget, thanks again for the submission Tyler.


A brief history of the design of the Arantix Mountain Bike by Delta 7 Sports

The Arantix Mountain Bike by Delta 7 Sports is a high performance XC racing mountain bike that is designed around a revolutionary technology called IsoTruss™. The story of how the Arantix was born has to begin with how the IsoTruss™ technology was born.

IsoTruss™ technology is the combination of two light-weight, high-strength technologies, one is structural, the other is material:

First is the light-weight structural technology of trusses. Truss technology has been around for quite a while and is a time-tested method for transferring high loads through very lightweight structures. Everywhere you look you can see trusses carrying very heavy loads, from large crane masts, to bridges, to roof supports, to airplane frames, to skyscrapers. Trusses have a very high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness-to-weight ratio. In fact, a traditional double diamond bicycle frame itself is just another kind of specialty truss, which is why it has remained virtually unchanged through the years, all across the cycling industry as the most efficient shape for a bicycle in terms of strength-to-weight.

Second is the light-weight material technology of high-modulus carbon fiber composites. While carbon fiber is a relatively young material technology, it is completely mainstream in the cycling world. Carbon is such a stable atom with such a strong molecular bond that it can be found at the center of almost every highly-evolved molecule in nature. In its purified form, carbon fiber has one of the highest strength-to-weight ratios of any material and it can be combined with a wide variety of resins or epoxies in order to “tune” the characteristics for any specific application.

The fact that carbon fiber starts out as a completely pliable fiber or fabric and then hardens into whatever shape it has been formed makes it ideal for creating exotic shapes and curves. The possibilities for smooth flowing surfaces and shapes are literally endless. For that reason, many manufacturers have not felt a need to think outside the realm of “continuous surface” molded design.

IsoTruss™ takes carbon fiber composites technology in a totally different direction. It winds the carbon fibers into very efficient open-lattice trusses that are able to support themselves against very high bending, torsional, compression, and buckling loads, without using as much material as other composite structures. The very unique IsoTruss™ shape with its regular peaks and valleys is optimized to keep all of the primary load bearing intersections at their very strongest.

Many bicycle designers have wanted to use larger diameter tubing in their bicycle designs because larger diameter tubes are better at resisting bending. But there is a limit to how large a “continuous surface” cylinder can be on a bicycle because as it gets larger in diameter the wall thickness must decrease in order to keep the weight equal and then the tube is susceptible to local buckling (like kinking a soda can). But a truss design allows the bicycle frame designer to have it both ways. The IsoTruss™ can have load bearing members spread far apart from each other like an I-Beam, but the thick support lattice members protect it from local buckling.

The IsoTruss™ technology was originally developed at Brigham Young University under the direction of co-inventor Dr. David W. Jensen. For a number of years their research focused on very large diameter applications like power poles, cell phone towers, radar antennas, replacing re-bar inside concrete pillars, airplane wings etc. They were always looking for new applications and load scenarios with which to demonstrate the advantages of a composite open-lattice truss. The research team was looking for any application that required high strength, high stiffness, and low weight. Building a bicycle out of IsoTruss™ seemed like a good fit for the researchers because it was a product that gets people excited, it is a competitive industry that has a “cutting edge” image, and it presented a whole new set of challenges for the IsoTruss™ that had not been previously explored. The bicycle project pushed the envelope for small diameter manufacturing techniques, component attachment and connection issues, and performance tuning. In all, the BYU research team made four bicycle frames. Each one significantly more advanced than its predecessor. Some of the early frames were focused more on the IsoTruss™ members than the complete bike, they were intended to prove a concept more than create a bike, but each one came closer and closer to a bicycle frame that met all of the design criteria.

The 3rd IsoTruss™ bike frame caught the attention of a senior engineer at Specialized and he suggested that the bike frame needed some good lugs in order to be more credible so he donated two pairs of titanium lugs that were left over from an R&D project that never made it to market. With the new titanium lugs and a lot of lessons learned along the way, the BYU research team set out to build one last concept bike. The fourth IsoTruss™ bike is the one that people usually have heard about because it was taken down to Interbike and captured by quite a few cameras outside the show.

A few years later a group of entrepreneurs with backgrounds in composites fabrication and aerospace industries purchased the worldwide rights to IsoTruss™ technology from Brigham Young University. The company’s name is Advanced Composite Solutions. Their plan was to develop the manufacturing process further and create a fully automated IsoTruss™ braiding machines. They will also sublicense the rights to IsoTruss technology and spin-off a series of IsoTruss companies for each broad category of applications. Rather than wait for the machine to finish development, Advanced Composite Solutions decided to begin creating subsidiary companies for applications that can still be viable using hand-built IsoTrusses™. Delta 7 Sports is the first company created by Advanced Composite Solutions and their focus is on all bicycle applications for IsoTruss™ technology.

Delta 7 Sports set out to create a race-quality bicycle that uses IsoTruss™ technology. The name Arantix was chosen for the project. It was derived from the scientific name for “Weaver Spider” which is Arantia and the latin word for “weaver woman” which is Textrix. The Delta 7 Sports team had a relatively short development schedule in order to create the bike in time for the 2007 Interbike show, so they decided to scrap the idea of using custom welded titanium lugs and go instead with a more advanced full-carbon molded lug set. The team partnered with ClosedMold Composites in Salt Lake City, Utah to create the lugs. ClosedMold’s founder, Ron Nelson, had previously been contracted by TREK to develop their successful OCLV lug technology, so they were already intimately familiar with what it takes to make carbon fiber lugs for bicycle loads and stresses. The Delta 7 Sports team knew that they could build on the previous knowledge gained by the BYU bicycle research in some ways, but in many other ways, they would have to start from scratch. Changes would include a totally updated geometry, updated connection points, new tube diameters, a change from rim brakes to disc brakes, and a new tooling concept for building the IsoTrusses™.

The completed Arantix frame weighs less than 2.75 lbs. It was unveiled at Interbike to very large crowds of people and wide spectrum of opinions. Most people are very impressed, some are skeptical. Delta 7 Sports is planning to have bikes at the Outdoor Demo in 2008 so that industry folks can ride it for themselves and see just how light and strong it is and just how well it handles.

Traveling again

I am going out of town tomorrow for a little over a week. I will post if I get a chance, but it is sometimes hard to find the time when traveling for business and working long days. The trip also means that I will be off the bike for a bit over a week. Whenever I get ready to fly out of town, I always start thinking that I need to get a lightweight folder like a Bike Friday Pocket Rocket or a breakaway road frame like the one from Ritchey. I don’t travel all that much for work, but it would be nice to be able to ride when I do. I know that I could always ride the stationary bikes at the hotel fitness center, but trust me, I’m not that disciplined. Besides, real riding always beats watching CNN on a cheap exercise bike with the seat way too low.

While I am posting, I’ll mention this link to a city bike project that a reader, Casper, recently sent to me. The project bike, shown here, was designed by students at the Koln International School of Design in Cologne, Germany. You can see some of the design details, including what I assume to be an integrated GPS based cyclocomputer/ navigation system and a modular carrying rack with compartments for tools and supplies, on the project website.

Finally, I’ll mention the December print issue of BikeBiz (available as a pdf download on the website) because I was reading the quote/unquote section on page 15 at lunch today. I read at least three quarters of the 3rd quote before I realized that it was from a comment I left in response to the Spokesmen podcast a few months ago. No joke, I read nearly the whole paragraph before I remembered writing it in response to a discussion about the customer service problem in some bicycle shops. The scariest part is that I was reading the quote and thinking, “good point but it is a little hard to follow” until I realized that it was something I wrote myself several months ago. From now on, I’ll look at the name at the bottom first. Pretty funny.

Mike Burrows video

I have mentioned Mike Burrows on the blog a few times before; I even mentioned him in one of my very first posts. He has designed many great recumbent bikes and trikes throughout his career, but I most admire the work he did on uprights like the Lotus bike for Chris Boardman and the first compact frame Giants in the 90s. I haven’t heard much about him lately, but I just saw a link on VeloVision to a video of Mr. Burrows showing off his bikes. Also, bottlemasher has some great photos of the Ratracer V.L.R., one of Burrows latest creations. The photostream is worth checking out. In particular I like the photos, like this one, which show Mr. Burrows piloting the Ratracer.

I would recommend Mike Burrow's book “Bicycle Design”, published around 2000,to anyone interested in his designs. The book is pretty basic and it is definitely biased toward the author’s strong opinions about bike design, but I still think it is a pretty entertaining read. As a definitive book on the subject of bicycle design, it is definitely NOT a substitute for Whit and Wilson’s “Bicycling Science” or for Archibald Sharp’s classic book, but Mr. Burrow's book is fun to look through if you are interested in his perspective. I believe his book is out of print at this point, but you can check your local library for a copy if you want to see fun illustrations, furry helmets, nicely shaped carbon frames, and plenty of monoblade forks.

Photo credit: bottlemasher on Flickr

Mystery wooden bike

Soon after I mentioned the JANO bike in June of last year, a reader, Roberto, sent me this image of another wooden bike. The message and image kind of got lost in the shuffle until he recently sent me another email about something else. Anyway, Roberto doesn’t really remember where he found this image. He thinks it came from online coverage of Eurobike at some point. He wants to find out more about the bike, so I am wondering if any of you can help him out? The cables reminded me of the old, and I guess also the new, Slingshot frames (something Roberto mentioned as well). If you can identify this bike, leave a comment; I am a bit curious about it too.

This is only tangentially related to bicycle design, but I just received a flyer in the mail for the Systems, Cities, & Sustainable Mobility Summit. The event takes place February 5-7 at the Art Center in Pasadena. It sounds pretty interesting, but I won’t be able to travel to California for it. I am just wondering if any of you west coast readers are thinking about attending. Paul Hawken will be the keynote speaker and, having read a couple of his books, I would love to hear what he has to say. Fill me in if you decide to attend.

Update 2/4/08: Thanks to Peter at Velo Vision for identifying this bike and it's designer. Apparently it was made by James Coleman of Loughborough University and was on display at the Cycle 2002 show in London.

Cube urban bike concept

I hope everyone had a great New Year. It certainly felt like January here in Greenville this morning. I guess I am a fair weather bike commuter because I usually just drive to work on cold days. This morning though, I rode despite temps in the 20s. By the time I got to work, my face was numb and my hair was frozen, but it was still a fun ride in. Tonight’s lows are going to be in the teens (pretty cold for South Carolina), so I’ll see if I can keep the commuting streak going.

Anyway, back to design content. Over the holidays I noticed an incoming link from a blog that I had never seen before called Hubstripping. It is worth checking out if you haven’t already seen it. A recent post showed the Urban Concept Bike, pictured here, from German bicycle manufacturer Cube. The bike was designed by Gregor Dauth, a student at the University Coburg/Germany, and features an internally geared 8-speed hub and a fully enclosed drivetrain. You can read about more of the features of this concept bike at the Hubstripping post.

Also over the holidays, I noticed that MocoLoco posted a few new limited edition versions of the Puma/Biomega bikes. From drop bars on one to BMX bars and mags on another, it looks like Puma is trying to capitalize on the “fixed gear freestyler trend”. Yeah I know these aren’t really fixed, but the pink and green ones certainly have that hipster fixie look.

Speaking of hipster fixies, the latest issue of ID magazine mentioned these rust and scratch stickers from designer Dominic Wilcox. In the ID article, the stickers are shown on a Bianchi Pista (no surprise there) and are referred to as an ingenious theft deterrent. I don’t know about the stickers, but the angled down drop bars would be enough to scare me away from the bike pictured in the magazine. While you are at it, check out some of Dominic’s other work. After you see the Orgasmatron 3000 or the on/off switch on his head, you will know not to take the rust stickers too seriously.