aa
bb

Saturday, May 24, 2014

This Full Size Bike Can be Folded Down to The Size Of An Umbrella


If you are like any of us, chances are you fully understand the importance of riding a bike to your workplace or to your college/university, yet the only thing keeping you from it is the fact that using a bike as mode of transportation has its pros and cons and the biggest drawback you will be faced with is that you can’t carry it around like a skateboard.

That is the reason why we are witnessing a rising trend of bike designs that can be folded and carried out easily. However, in the attempts to come up with such a bike, the designers tend to opt for smaller sized bikes, which eventually kills off the primary reason for using a bike in the first place.

However, we have one Italian designer who has come up with a design for a perfectly foldable bike that comes with full sized wheels and is still capable of being transformed into a folded package that is about the same size of an umbrella. You can ride it to the required destination and then simply fold it and carry it around. This particular model has no chain; instead, it comes with a hub. Once again, the reason why it gets the limelight is the fact that despite having the ability to be folded down into something as small as an umbrella, the bike still has full 26″ size wheels and that sets it apart!

The designer behind this feat is Gianluca Sada, who had this idea once he saw how impracticable the existing folding bike designs were. According to him; ‘The idea of a folding bike has undertaken numerous studies that focus on reducing the weight and dimensions which have led, to too small sized bicycles. They have a small frame and wheels at the expense of stability, for the sake of compactness and portability during transport. The minimum size of the frame, in fact, penalizes the rider position while driving and the small size of the wheels significantly are affected by variations in terrain.’

Mr. Sada further added that he envisioned his design to support full size wheels and still have a frame and components, which would allow the bike to fold down into a size that was easy to manage. His current prototype has been created after a dozen attempts and is composed of wheels that have no spokes and can fold into a size, which allows it to be used as a backpack.

He hopes that his design will allow to show others the way towards a brand new mobility system that is not confined to the traditional designs, is accessible and yet can be transported easily. As of now, Mr. Sada is looking for an investor to help him finance the production of this super awesome bike.



No comments: