Over the last year or so, I have waxed philosophical to all of you about the hottest design I had seen in 23 years, which was the Pee-Wee Herman. I love it for many reasons, not the least of which is it speaks to me. Knowing that and according to an earlier post on this blog titled “My Design Funk Hall of Fame”, the Pee-Wee Herman is my favorite design of all time, at least until today. As you remember, I came up with my hall of fame after looking at over 1,300 designs from the last 15 years. It is a very difficult thing for any design to break into my Top 5, let alone take the #1 spot from Pee-Wee. Today readers, that feat has been accomplished! I like to think of myself as the Billboard Hot 100 (Music) when it comes to bicycle design.
The pictured Design is called “The Nuvinci ”. Not only is this design HOOOTT but the name just flows of your tongue, does it not? Sounds like a classic painting or something. I found out about this design from an email sent to me by one of the designers. Excluding the Pee-Wee Herman, something I have always valued in bicycle design is simplicity. This design is very clean, simple yet decorative in a way that defies my tiny vocabulary.
I emailed someone I respect very much in the industry trying to get their thoughts on the
Nuvinci. This person owns a bicycle company and I was surprised by their reaction to this funk ball. They said “It’s an Ellsworth, nobody will buy it”. Ellsworth is a bicycle company with a web address of
http://www.ellsworthbikes.com/. Are you kidding me? Admittedly, no other current Ellsworth bicycles will make it onto this blog because, well, the rest of their designs are uninspiring and resemble the 1000’s of other designs I have seen. But dang man, GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE! My friend has some ‘
Haterism’ in his game. The designer of this bike was telling me about some sort of special ‘Hub Drive’ this design has but as you all know, I am an ‘Aesthetic’ sort of guy and gadgets are irrelevant to my thought process. One design, breaks into my HOT 5 at #1- Today, is a good day.
Sorry I have been away for a little wide my dear readers but I have been feverishly trying to finish the edit process of by auto-biographical book called ‘Another Kind of Normal’. I have been working on it for the last 8 years and I have learned so much in the process. Writing a book isn’t like doing a homework assignment where you go home, sit down and bang it out until its’ done. Writing on this level it is a process of reflection, inspiration, and research! Anyway, I came across this chopper styles design for sale in Europe. The company is called Nirve’ and they have some OK designs I must admit. When I 1st saw this design, I thought to myself ‘Ugly Paint-Great Frame!” However, I was intrigued by the shape of the Seat Tube and the way it is bent to coincide with the rear fender. Although it seems harsh, the paint is ugly and it shows what I have believed for a long time, the focus must turn from just putting the ‘Same Old Same Old’ out and get imaginative about this process.
In one of my earlier posts I featured the new generation of Chrysler 300’s and the switch in thought process at Chrysler in this particular instance away from trying to create more gadgets to go in this widely popular design to focus more on aesthetics. I often look to the fashion industry for design inspiration and what I noticed is that fashion is rarely about ‘Function’ but about looks! In understanding the urban mind set a bicycle designer also has to come to the reality that there are many bicycle owners who do care about the gadgets such as shocks and suspensions, off-road mountain biking, road racing, etc. But the average bicycle consumer in urban areas wants “THE LOOK!” Black bicycle designers need to be reminded of this simple fact, your urban riders are seeking, attention! Why do young adults and teenagers with cars ride around with there music so loud?
Since I used to do this I can tell you it sure ain’t so they can better hear their music, it is so they can be noticed! ‘Spinner’ rims on cars are for one thing, to be noticed! You get my point. Bicycle design has to go from focusing so much on functionality and more on getting the rider noticed. What would I do to supe this particular design up?
This particular color of green is really obnoxious to look at. A pearl color would look great here!
Let’s loose the doo-doo brown colored seat and hook this sucker up with a suede colored fabric. Cover the saddle (seat) springs with a solid chrome color that features the company’s logo facing outwards!
Suede colored fenders on the back and front trimmed in pearl to match the frame.
‘Nirve’ spelled out in Suede colored (This is a good font) costume jewelry on top tubing.
Hand grips are suede with pearl colored tips. ‘Nirve’ written in the same font and same style jewelry (But larger) on the chain guard and shifted from the back of the chain guard to the middle and centered. Chrome sprocket trimmed in pearl! Spokes and tires look good.
I can only imagine yall!
Over the last year or so, I have waxed philosophical to all of you about the hottest design I had seen in 23 years, which was the Pee-Wee Herman. I love it for many reasons, not the least of which is it speaks to me. Knowing that and according to an earlier post on this blog titled “My Design Funk Hall of Fame”, the Pee-Wee Herman is my favorite design of all time, at least until today. As you remember, I came up with my hall of fame after looking at over 1,300 designs from the last 15 years. It is a very difficult thing for any design to break into my Top 5, let alone take the #1 spot from Pee-Wee. Today readers, that feat has been accomplished! I like to think of myself as the Billboard Hot 100 (Music) when it comes to bicycle design.
I emailed someone I respect very much in the industry trying to get their thoughts on the Nuvinci. This person owns a bicycle company and I was surprised by their reaction to this funk ball. They said “It’s an Ellsworth, nobody will buy it”. Ellsworth is a bicycle company with a web address of http://www.ellsworthbikes.com/. Are you kidding me? Admittedly, no other current Ellsworth bicycles will make it onto this blog because, well, the rest of their designs are uninspiring and resemble the 1000’s of other designs I have seen. But dang man, GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE! My friend has some ‘Haterism’ in his game. The designer of this bike was telling me about some sort of special ‘Hub Drive’ this design has but as you all know, I am an ‘Aesthetic’ sort of guy and gadgets are irrelevant to my thought process. One design, breaks into my HOT 5 at #1- Today, is a good day.
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