Bendable bicycle wraps itself around a pole - by design

Parking your two-wheeler in a shady neighborhood, but left your secondary lock at home? No problem -- to protect your wheels, just bend your bike around a nearby post and thread your U-lock through the whole kit at once. That's the idea behind UK designer Kevin Scott's folding bicycle, which is rigid enough to freely ride, but releases its flexible ratcheting mechanism when you push a lever on the side. The design won the 21-year-old student £500 at the New Designers exhibition in London this week. He's presently looking for partners to help commercialize the concept, which looks more practical than some, so we expect it'll be only a few years before you'll see his creation zipping down the street. One question, though -- why not go the whole nine yards and give it a built-in lock, too?

[bdkennedy1 Posted Jul 11th 2010 10:08PM]

Cut your hair, you look like a girl.

[Very Powerfull Codfish Posted Jul 11th 2010 10:12PM]

F*CKIN A!

[NeoDarkSaver Posted Jul 11th 2010 10:59PM]

now u can only park one bike per pole.

[tom902 Posted Jul 11th 2010 11:40PM]

its cheaper if u just buy a u lock and a 99 dollar bike from walmart...

[waffle911 Posted Jul 12th 2010 4:11AM]

@tom902 Clearly you don't rely on a bike for daily transportation in a city…a $99 Wal-Mart bike is fine for occasional recreation riding, but for serious riders they are simply not up to snuff. Which makes good bike security all the more important.

[vicarious1 Posted Jul 11th 2010 11:44PM]

Why add A LOCK why not built it into the bike at least the thief wont be as familiar with it as the classic ones on the market.

[Nilithius Posted Jul 12th 2010 12:35AM]

I want those shoes.

[Gi Posted Jul 12th 2010 12:37AM]

that guys hoooot

[flett Posted Jul 12th 2010 1:38AM]

hey bud, did u ever think maybe there was a reason this wasnt invented b4?

P.S. - nice shoes, does your boyfriend like the purple and yellow mesh?

[Zzephyr Posted Jul 12th 2010 2:22AM]

We are not impressed.

[Psyclotr0n Posted Jul 12th 2010 2:35AM]

wah! reactionary RAGE!

[beersurfing Posted Jul 12th 2010 2:39AM]

I'd buy this if only because it's easy to transport. Just fold it over and toss it in the trunk! No need for a kludgy bike rack to f* up your paint

[tommalota Posted Jul 12th 2010 3:58AM]

Dutch invented this years ago, just have a walk in Amsterdam :)

[RAMenthusiast Posted Jul 12th 2010 4:37AM]

It has way more applications that just putting it around a pole! You could fold it into a car! And I imagine it could really help with turning...

[Diesel1313 Posted Jul 12th 2010 5:02AM]

Do those purple trainers hes wearing come with that lovely orange bike because then I so like want it yeah, like really yeah, yeah, :P

NOT

[WouterSchreurs Posted Jul 12th 2010 6:21AM]

I really don't see the piont of this bike. And what if there is no pole? Than you will still need a lock, so not a good idea...

[reakt Posted Jul 12th 2010 6:28AM]

Where are the brakes?!?!?

[weaky6 Posted Jul 12th 2010 8:30AM]

Bionic man? Anyone else? Ummmm ok.

[htd Posted Jul 12th 2010 10:09AM]

he still needs to lock the wheels and take the seat with him for protection.

[JBaker Posted Jul 12th 2010 11:05AM]

I spoke to Kevin on Saturday at the new designers show in London and he explained a few things.

The bike in the picture is a proof of concept to demonstrate the mechanism, rather than a fully finished working prototype so there's no point in commenting on how it looks.

The design does incorporate a built in lock! But this is a proof of concept for the ratchet system only. From what I understood the wheels would lock together by joining the axles once the bike is bent around (so no separate lock needed), but as said, this is a proof of concept and isn't in the pictures here.

The black sections are pretty damn clever. He said a lot of work went into designing them, I suppose to ensure they lock together rigidly and don't get caught up on each other when the time comes to retension. None of the sections needed to be coaxed into position they just slotted right back together. It's really a good design if you think about it. Once developed this could be very popular.

It's funny, I managed to get this information in about 3 minutes by actually talking to the guy, but a UK national newspaper could not be bothered to get the whole story on this. Typical Daily Mail.

[JBaker Posted Jul 12th 2010 11:07AM]

@JBaker

I agree though that there is an issue with locking to poles. Some councils really take exception to this these days. But you could still lock it around a proper cycle rack.

[syrne Posted Jul 12th 2010 11:28AM]

@JBaker Locking it in a bike rack seems like it would be akin to someone parking their car over 2 spaces. Bike parking is at a premium around here so someone taking up more space than necessary is just rude.

[JBaker Posted Jul 12th 2010 11:35AM]

@syrne

I don't think it would take up more space, but it does defeat the object of the bendy bike somewhat

I wish he had incorporated the lock into this prototype because it is in his design, it should be in this prototype to demonstrate it and avoid confusion like we are getting right here.

[Metaluna Posted Jul 12th 2010 3:59PM]

Interesting idea, though I have a hard time believing it could ever be stiff enough for anything other than the most basic fixed-gear utility transportation. If you look at the couplers used for more traditional folding bikes, such as S&S couplings, the amount of force they use to compress the two halves of the Hirth joint together is substantial (35 ft-lb on the locking collar).

http://www.sandsmachine.com/spec_ssc.htm
http://www.sandsmachine.com/

[MojoLA Posted Jul 12th 2010 4:29PM]

Is that a DELL SLATE in your pocket or are you just happy to see us?

[retrocomve Posted Jul 13th 2010 9:18AM]

Use that here in Venezuela and the criminals will wait until you come back, shoot you in the head for trying to outsmart them, and walk away from the bike (who wants a silly bike when you can steal cars?)

:(

[LeonardEmilian Posted Jul 14th 2010 7:34AM]

haw about a bendable/elastic car? lol