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| The Solid bike did not make it, but a pretty lass will always get top spot on this blog. |
AMERICAN cyclists have voted for the Denny, designed and built by
the Teague and Sizemore team, as the United States’ most innovative new
commuting bicycle.
Teague and Sizemore competed against five design teams in five U.S.
cities in the Bike Design Project to make a better bicycle for city use. The
Denny bike will now be made commercially by Fuji Bicycles. To vote, people had
to watch each of the five bike videos and register over a week-long period.
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| Designed to make cycling in cities stress free, the Denny bicycle has been voted a winner and will be built by Fuji. |
The
votes were tallied on August 4. Being of the lazy type, Wheels also voted for the
Denny, because it has an electric motor to help pedal and even turns on its
indicator lights automatically using GPS, to guide the peddler and inform the
traffic.
The bike’s designer, Taylor Sizemore, said: “Today’s urban commuter has
to navigate a sea of cars, buses and distracted pedestrians undergoing
information overload. Visibility is key to safety on the road, so we felt the
best way to navigate streets and be seen was to mirror the established
behaviours of automobiles.
“Bicycles typically have leveraged strobing lights, but recent
research has highlighted that strobing lights can make it difficult for
motorists to judge speed and distance. We have employed the use of day-light
running lights, brake lights and turn signals, like every other vehicle on the
road. We feel this not only increases visibility and awareness of the rider’s
intentions, but the well-known convention of always-on lighting makes our bike
easier to track for other motorists.”
The team improved security by making it “actual and perceptual” in
a U-lock handlebar system. “The handle bar can be fully removed to lock the bike
frame to other structures, like a bike rack.
This provides the ‘actual’
security, while the presence of a bicycle with no handlebars acts as a ‘visual’
deterrent.” The Denny has smart LED lights that turn on as the bicycle starts to
move and they adjust their intensity based on the light conditions.
Before voting for the Denny, the Wheels team anguished over the
Evo (above), which features a modular design of clip-on trays and baskets.
