Subscribe to RSSNZ Bike Wins Award
An electric bike described as the extraordinary lovechild of a Segway and a Penny Farthing is the supreme winner at the NZ 2010 Best Design Awards.
Organised by the Designers Institute of New Zealand, the Best Design Awards celebrate the country’s best designs of the year across the fields of product, spatial, graphic and interactive design.
Christchurch based YikeBike Ltd which won the Purple Pin (Supreme) award for product design.
Dubbed by Time magazine as one of the best designs of 2009, the ultra light carbon fibre electric YikeBike folds up into a shoulder bag in under 20 seconds. The brainchild of Christchurch serial entrepreneur, Grant Ryan, the YikeBike is currently in production.
The product judges, led by Professor Tony Parker, Head of Massey University’s Institute of Design for Industry and the Environment, said, “This radical piece of design has attracted a great deal of global attention, and no wonder. It takes typical urban commuting solutions, and turns them inside out.
“This contemporary penny-farthing is a game-changing idea and one where every component and detail has been designed from a single-minded perspective.”
This year an impressive 603 entries were received for the awards, one of the highest number of entries since the awards were established 22 years ago.
Cathy Veninga, CEO of the Designers Institute, said the institute was delighted by the high number of entries in the awards, coming hot on the heels of the worst recession experienced by the New Zealand design industry.
5 Comments
I would prefer a quality traditional bike myself, this looks far less stable to ride to me and certainly the “handlebars” would be less responsive. You can already buy good traditional fold-up bikes that I suspect would handle better. An interesting gimmick machine
I know “real” cyclists who were quite pleased with this machine, though I admit I don’t know either.
It’s already on the streets of Auckland
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=64770897&postcount=83
Love child?
Hmmmm… if you can’t pedal it, its not a bike in my opinion. Being portable and having two wheels are good attributes though.