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OPINION

Reinventing (everything but) the wheel

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What will the next urban bike look like? Well, rooting around on the web we found this on Core 77 an industrial design website.  J.Ruiter, a design firm from Michigan, think it'll look like the above. and here's why.

"Our project, simplicity in inner city bicycling, was at first glance a fun aesthetic opportunity in new trends, color, and materials. Our target lived / worked in an inner city environment with minimal space. Bicycling at this level can be more about fashion and culture than speed and performance.", they say.

"After the first few brainstorm sessions we knew there where bigger opportunities. The project ended up rethinking what a “frame” meant, getting rid of basic key components, and creating a new type of compact bicycling. Inspired by the first "hobby horse" from it's simplicity and secondly the cafe race scene. Each is an exercise in stripping something down to its core."

Hm.

Not so stripped down to its core, it would seem, that the new urban commuter doesn't need suspension forks. And disc brakes. The starting point is obviously an MTB, although it's not at all obvious why, since that's hardly the best kind of bike to commute on. And then there's the rethinking what 'frame' means. That's not the only thing they're redefining, I'd suggest: the concepts of 'comfort', 'ease of use' and 'fit for purpose' have taken a bit of a beating too...

Good for wheelies though  1

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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9 comments

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Ruthe | 15 years ago
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 13

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Trek Sal | 15 years ago
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Ah, but if a girl were to perch far enough forward on the 'bike', wouldn't that be a suitalble recess there to put her...errr....flaps?

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mr-andrew | 15 years ago
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Do you think they've actually tried to ride it yet, or just stood proudly round it taking photos?

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Fringe | 15 years ago
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jeez and i thought that Rido R2 saddle looked uncomfortable, and the way it's positioned means you would be perched at the end of it in order to get to the pedals successfully, unless of course you have backwards legs..(if you get what i mean)  39

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Simon_MacMichael | 15 years ago
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They forgot the bit about the well in the top tube (see shot from above) being perfect size and shape for an iPhone....

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Tony Farrelly | 15 years ago
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Thinking outside of the box is all very well, but sometimes the box was there for a reason

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DaSy | 15 years ago
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Based on a bad come down I think...

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Mr Sock | 15 years ago
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based on a moutain bike? More like a mountain unicycle stuck to an ordinary unicycle by means of a mini ironing board

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VecchioJo | 15 years ago
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Good for wheelies, and doing the ironing

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