Nothing New Under the Sun- BUT DANG!

I wrote a post last year about a design from 1946 simply known as 'Moon lander'. I ran across the design (pictured right) during my never ending search for something in bicycle design that emotionally moves me. To imagine a designer coming up with the 'Moon lander' 62 years ago simply fascinates me, which brings me to the point of this post. I found these designs on an architecture website (pictured below). Although they look an awful lot like the design from 1946, when I first laid eyes upon them, all I could say was DANG!


These designs were on the web simply titled 'Rush', yet the name Rush didn't yield any further information concerning manufacturer, designers, whether they are simply concept bicycles with renderings, or ANYTHING! Nevertheless, I have to say what I will always say when I see something like these designs "I saw the funk and it was good." As is customary with me, sure I would have been alot more aggressive with the colors (brighter,louder, more eye-catchy) and certainly I would have done something different with the rims, but these bicycles are HOOTTT!

I believe they are hooottt not for the reasons many of you may believe which is because they look 'Futuristic' as such, because as I have stated before after seeing many so-called 'Futuristic' designs at design competitions, and after looking at not less than 100, I was not emotionally moved AT ALL by the other 'Futuristic' designs I have seen (save the one pictured above). One of the reasons I like the below pictured designs is that I can tell that much thought went into creating every aspect of this design from the rims, up to the frame, to the handle bars (which are freak shows) to what appears to be disc brakes. I am keepin' it real with yall when I say that my heart aches when I see kids and young adults riding on bicycles that are sub-par at best and manufactured in a process that closely resemble how cookies for sale in your local grocery store are produced 'I mold, 1 seat, one tire design fits all'.

As I close I will answer a question that has stayed with me since it was asked by one of my readers. That question was "Brian why isn't your blog on any of the other major bicycle blogs as one of their favorite links?" The short answer to that is many of the blogs I have seen are stuffed full of content, which is OK I guess. But there is really no central focus or any stated 'Vision' or directions from some other blogs and when there is, the content that surrounds the 'Vision' really has little, if anything to do with the stated vision! The longer answer to the question is that my 'Vision' is very focused on 'Urban Funk' which means bicycle design from an inner-city perspective and because there isn't alot of this kind of content on the web, I rarely find content that fits with my vision and since I am not interested in placing content on my blog for the sake of having content on my site, what I am doing is of no interest to the others.

I have received content from companies asking me to post their latest designs and emails from others asking about bicycle events etc. But that isn't what this blog is about. It is about bringing to light the fact there is an audience in this country of not less than 40 million Urban Consumers that are being ignored by bicycle designers and it is my mission in life to educate you all on what these consumers may be looking for in design.