Folding Bikes As Personal Mobility Solutions

by Larry Lagarde

On May 1st, the Cycling & Health Tech Industry R&D Center of Taiwan began accepting design concepts for the 13th International Bicycle Design Competition. Yesterday, the Backpack Bicycle (one of the hundreds of concept sketches/designs that have been entered for the competition) got a lot of press on Gizmodo, TechDigest, Technorati and a series of other blogs/websites. Some of the buzz yesterday was pretty silly and off target (the Backpack bike kind of resembles a toilet lid when the bike's folded); however, the real story is the pressing need worldwide for a better personal mobility solution.

For thousands of years, people have yearned for a way to move about that's better than walking. We've progressed from riding animals to vehicles pulled by animals and then onto the use of machines.

Of all the machines we've tried, the bicycle has proved to be the most efficient and cost effective but standard, full size bicycles have obvious limitations regarding size and weight. Small wheel folding bikes on the market today solve those issues to a degree; however, a variety of designers think that they can make bikes better in terms of being lighter, more compact, stronger and more affordable.

Based on all I've heard, this will be a watermark year for innovative bicycle designs. For one, just look at the volume and variety of design concepts that have been entered in the bike design competion this year. No doubt, there will be several exciting designs on display at InterBike and EuroBike. Personally, I've been following Pacific Cycles' exciting IF Mode with great interest (this appears to be the most forward thinking design in production today) but even huge, mass market producers like Trek are focusing now on folding bikes. The result is that even more resources are being focused on bringing better designs to market.

Where will all this go? Will bikes become so inexpensive, durable and compact that they become as important to daily life as cell phones and computers? One fact is certain: cars propelled by fossil fuels will NEVER be a practical option for the majority of humans in the world. On the other hand, a bike weighing 10-15 lbs that costs a few hundred bucks when new - now that would be revolutionary...

By the way, if you have a cool, new bike design, you can enter that design free of charge in the international design competition too. You have until August 10 2008 to submit your design via email. Twenty-one finalists will be selected to submit a small-scale model of their designs. Final results will be announced on March 17, 2009, the first day of the 2009 Taipei International Cycle Show. The Grand Prize winner will receive NT$500,000 as well as the high honor of being the creator of the world's best new bike design.

To enter the international bicycle design competition, visit design.runride.com.