Bendy bike inventor scores design prize win
The cycle that can be wrapped round a lamppost - intentionally
Now this is a great idea: a bike with a bendy frame that allows it to be literally wrapped around a lamppost and locked up.
The flexible frame was developed by DeMontfort University, Leicester final-year BSc Product Design student Kevin Scott and won him a runner's up prize in the recent Business Design Centre (BDC) New Designer of the Year competition.
Scott's design essentially replaces two parts of a bike's frame with a segmented tube and, within, a cable. Tighten the cable and the segments snap into place with sufficient rigidity to allow you to ride the bike safely.
Loosen the cable - there a ratchet just below the saddle - and the frame can now bend through 180°.
You can lock a regular bike to lamppost of course, by Scott's design takes up considerably less room.
Scott's prize win netted him £500. "I intend to use the prize money to outsource production of some of the key components to allow for full testing," he said. ®
COMMENTS
Solution looking for a problem?
Most official cycle parking areas provide a cycle rack thus negating the need for any bendy technology. The majority of cycles fastened to lamp posts are probably done so without permission - and a single bendy bike per lamppost that would normally hold 2-3 bikes is a poor use of limited resources!
One problem
If you fold the bike and lock the 2 wheels together..
You can steal both wheels by unbolting them, which as a bonus now leaves the rest of the bike free and unchained (the chain is still linking the 2 wheels together)
Permission to lock a bike to a lamp post?
"The majority of cycles fastened to lamp posts are probably done so without permission".
In all the years I've been riding a bike, this is the first time I've seen a suggestion that you need permission to lock your bike to a lamp post.
Where should I apply for permission? Is there a lamp post quango? Do I get some kind of permit, and if so does it apply to all lamp posts or just one?
Hmmm
What you've all missed of course is that the folded bike is now small enough to also fit in the boot of a car, and doesn't look like some sort of "special" bike!
