I really like this bike built for the ladies! The tires (in my opinion) are WAY to masculine unless you live in the country and certainly this isn't built for extreme mountain biking, but this design is nice...really nice!
As you all know, I don't get into these types of bicycle, but for some odd reason, this one caught my eye!
Showing posts with label bike blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bike blogs. Show all posts
The colors here are FAB! Yes my friends, in my never ending search for all things FUNK in bicycle design, I saw these 2 rides and JUST HAD TO POST THEM. Why? Well, because they are just very creative and it took SOME imagination to come up with these concepts. Are they new concepts? NO! Remember I posted a bicycle called a 1947 Moon Lander a few years ago. 
However, these cats must've taken that concept and built a MORE ROBUST looking Moon Lander. It doesn't make these any better or worse, just creative from the stance of, they saw a concept and improved upon it! Now on the green design, I hate those APE-HANGER handle bars...2 things bother me more than anything else on a design. Ape hanger handle bars and white wall tire...As my boys Damon Wayans and David Allen Grier used to say on 'In Living Color'....HATED IT!
On the Orange bike, can't you just feel that DESIGN RHYTHM? If you look at that FUNK BALL and and don't at least feel like dancing a little, you prolly ain't got no rhythm eh? Well done designers and because I believe these are well done, I must say (minus the ape hanger handle bars) "I saw the FUNK...and it WAS GOOD!"
Marshall Major Taylor has begun to creep into the public eye with the unveiling of a Statue made in his likeness that now stands outside of the Worcester, MA. library. Nicknamed the Worcester Whirlwind, Taylor was much loved by his adopted hometown where he moved to with Louis 'Birdie' Munger, his mentor, in the late 1800s. To think that he did this in the late 1800s when African-Americans couldn't even drink out of the same fountain as whites makes this athlete's story even more incredible!
On another video interview, his Great-Great grand-daughter and Grandson said something that was almost Prophetic; "No one really knows him now but I hope Major Taylor is a household name in my life-time!" Fear not young ones, soon, your relative will get HIS DUE and in a way that every household in this country will scream the name "Major Taylor!"
Companies such as Chrysler and Pacific Cycles are now openly holding so called 'Spin it your way' and 'What kind of bike would you like to see' suggestions. They want you to email in design suggestions,send them a sketch or even send in a 3-D Model of your hot idea! Now readers correct me if I am wrong, don't those companies and many like them PAY PEOPLE to come up with hot designs?
I guess that is beside the point. I understand the need for these kinds of contests but the point of a contest is that there they are supposed to be for a limited time, they should have a close date, and there should be two winners, the company gets free publicity and the contestant usually gets a valuable prize. The way these two particular contests are set up is they don’t have a close date, I can’t find what the prize is that either company is offering and IF anyone submits a hot design or suggestions for improvement, the only clear winner is Pacific Cycles and Chrysler!
Readers, I speak from experience when I tell you that any designer has to be careful putting their ideas, sketches, etc out there for a company or general public consumption. On this very blog that you are reading, I had a guy who owns a Bicycle Company come across my blog and ‘Steal’ one of the sketches I posted. Not only that he emailed me back the design when it was finished and asked me “What do you think of my design?” Now that was bold!
I said all of that to say this, a designer has to understand the value of their ideas and designs. Instead of just giving your ideas to someone who undoubtedly will make MILLIONS off your ideas if they are hot enough, package and sell them yourself!
Even if you don’t package them and sell them because you don’t have the financial wherewithal to do so, your expertise and experience makes you a consultant. Why should you help companies like these improve their products for free when all they will do is turn around and charge you to buy a product that you designed? Remember this, if they haven’t thought of it and you have, IT HAS VALUE! An example of this is the mail service that most of you use called ‘Hotmail’. This service started off as a guy wanting an easy way to electronically communicate with his colleagues. It grew a little and at that time in the 1990’s, the software giant Microsoft didn’t have such a service. The entrepreneur sold Hotmail to Microsoft for a reported amount of $400 Million dollars! That guy didn’t give his idea away for free or submit it as part of a contest. His idea had value and so does yours!
The answer is yes. This question was asked of me by someone but I will also 'Hurry to add' that I am very careful about what I look at and how long I look at them. The reason is simply. Often times when we look at something to long or with too much interest, those images, words, etc are imprinted on what some people call our subconscious mind. These images (bikes) or words will creep out in ways we may not recognize. In our speech, writings, design, etc. Before you know it, you think you did something that was your own and creative when the truth is that because you viewed images, words, etc for too long, you are actually plagiarizing somebody else's work. This may or may not be done on purpose, but the result will be the same!
My inspiration for design never comes from other designers, but my inspiration comes form such places as the fashion industry, car care accessories, etc. Strangely enough, sometimes it comes from seeing the simplest things. For instance, I saw someone wearing one of those huge shiny, silver Rodeo belt buckles one time. You know the ones cowboys wear around and some of them seem as large a a saucer? I saw how one looked and I thought to myself "That would make a hot bicycle design!" A few days later, a design of mine I call 'Beasty' was born. Granted, those things are steel and unrealistic for what I am doing, but the inspiration was there. Another time I heard some one's name that I really liked, 'Emraphael', a few days later, a design baring the same name was born. My point is that design is all around, slow down and notice.
I read once that there was some design copying going on with a few of the major bicycle manufacturers. The way they go about it is they all pretty much get their bicycles manufactured in some of the same factories in China. If you don't know, China is the hugest copyright offender in the world. Bootlegging products is a way of life in China. Everything from music to fashion to movies, etc. I struggled to understand why anyone would really care about what the competition is doing, but what I remembered is that the reason they are concerned is because 'It is the competition!' What an epiphany right? Nevertheless, sure I am a nobody as design goes right now, sure the odds are stacked against my designs ever making it to market, but where most would see that as a position of weakness, it is actually a position of strength!
When this thing does go down, no one will ever see it coming. To wrap this all up, I do not spend much time looking at other designs because the truth is that I do not care what they are doing! What they are doing is irrelevant to me and small designers all over the world. Please do not think I am arrogant, because that isn't who I am (anymore anyway). I just realize that there is a higher plain of bicycle design that can be achieved. Not these futuristic bicycle concepts that win awards at the Taiwanese design competition every year but aren't relevant or practical for mass production (Although there was a design called Wild Buffalo that is HOOOTTTT!) A higher plain doesn't always mean more sophisticated, or more gadgets on the bike, etc. A higher plain in my mind simply means 'More relevant to the culture to which it is targeted'.
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