So many different styles of bikes!
© Thinkstock

A good bicycle is such a clever, simple vehicle.

I was appreciating the brilliance of bike designs as I was riding the other day. That is, until my chain popped off. And my back started hurting from bending over the handlebars awkwardly.

Oh, I see! Time to get a new bike!

So with this opportunity, I went online to investigate the possibilities. Obviously, a bike should be designed so it is comfortable and easy to use, but it should also reflect creative imagination.

Here are a few I’ve discovered.

A Creative and Flashy Design

Ben Wilson, a designer in the United Kingdom, playfully combined a push-pedal bike with a simple car-shaped neon outline to create this Articar.

Ben Wilson’s Articar
© Ben Wilson

I like that you can recline instead of lean over the handlebars.

I also like its unique presence. I wonder—Is the light powered by pedaling?

Too bad this is a one-of-a-kind design.

A High Tech Design

This amazing urban concept bike was designed by Chris Boardman, MBE-R&D Director and company founder of Boardman Bikes.

Bike designed by Chris Boardman MBE – R&D Director & Company Founder – Boardman Bikes – www.boardmanbikes.com
© Boardman Bikes

This spoke-less bike has a computer “brain,” which counts calories and plays music. It even uses fingerprint recognition to unlock it!  The tires are airless so they will never deflate or pop. On top of all that, it has a solar-powered motor for when you’re too tired to pedal anymore.

Unfortunately, this one isn’t within my price range.

A Simple Design

And then there’s this one. It was the winner in a contest of bike designs from Google engineers, and it is what Google employees pedal around their large campus. This bike looks, well, ordinary (except for its distinct Google color combination).

A brightly-painted but beautifully simple Google bike
© Janine Boylan

It has a basket, chain guard, and back fender to keep water from splattering the rider. And it has a bell—very important for navigating through crowded sidewalks of people.

David Fork, one of the designers of the bike explains, “Our design motto was ‘Build a user-friendly, safe and reliable, low-maintenance new GBike.'” He and his teammates worked on several different ideas with various types of brakes and gears. They even tried airless tires, like Boardman’s futuristic bike concept. But they found that the most comfortable ride was with this simple design.

Oh, I see (again). Sometimes creativity’s challenge is to achieve simplicity. As Steve Jobs said, “Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”

Now,  if I want to ride a simple bike like the GBike, all I have to do is use my creative imagination to get a job at Google.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

<\/h2>\n

So many different styles of bikes!
\u00a9 Thinkstock<\/p><\/div>\n

A good bicycle is such a\u00a0clever, simple vehicle.<\/p>\n

I was appreciating the brilliance of bike designs as I was riding the other day. That is, until my chain popped off. And my back started hurting from bending over the handlebars awkwardly.<\/p>\n

Oh, I see!<\/strong> Time to get a new bike!<\/p>\n

So with this opportunity, I went online to\u00a0investigate the possibilities.\u00a0Obviously, a bike should be\u00a0designed so it is comfortable and easy to use, but it should also reflect creative imagination.<\/p>\n

Here are a few I’ve discovered.<\/p>\n

A Creative and Flashy Design<\/h4>\n

Ben Wilson<\/a>, a designer in the United Kingdom, playfully combined a push-pedal bike with a simple car-shaped neon outline to create this Articar.<\/p>\n

Ben Wilson’s Articar
\u00a9 Ben Wilson<\/p><\/div>\n

I like that you can recline instead of lean over the handlebars.<\/p>\n

I also like its unique presence. I wonder—Is\u00a0the light powered by pedaling?<\/p>\n

Too bad this is a one-of-a-kind design.<\/p>\n

A High Tech Design<\/h4>\n

This amazing urban concept bike was designed by Chris Boardman, MBE-R&D Director and company founder of\u00a0Boardman Bikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bike designed by Chris Boardman MBE – R&D Director & Company Founder – Boardman Bikes – www.boardmanbikes.com
\u00a9 Boardman Bikes<\/p><\/div>\n

This spoke-less bike has a computer “brain,” which counts calories and\u00a0plays music. It even uses fingerprint recognition to\u00a0unlock it!\u00a0\u00a0The tires are airless so they will never deflate or pop.\u00a0On top of all that, it has a solar-powered motor for when you’re too tired to pedal anymore.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this one isn’t\u00a0within my price range.<\/p>\n

A Simple Design<\/h4>\n

And then there’s this one. It was the winner in a contest of bike designs from Google engineers, and it is what Google employees pedal around their large campus. This bike looks, well, ordinary (except for its distinct Google color combination).<\/p>\n

A brightly-painted but beautifully simple Google bike
\u00a9 Janine Boylan<\/p><\/div>\n

It has a basket, chain guard, and back fender to keep water from splattering the rider. And it has a bell—very important for navigating through crowded sidewalks of people.<\/p>\n

David Fork<\/a>, one of the designers of the bike explains, “Our design motto was ‘Build a user-friendly, safe and reliable, low-maintenance new GBike.'” He and his teammates worked on several different ideas with various types of brakes and gears. They even tried airless tires, like Boardman’s futuristic bike concept. But they found that the most comfortable ride was with this simple design.<\/p>\n

Oh, I see (again).<\/strong> Sometimes creativity’s challenge is to achieve simplicity. As Steve Jobs said, “Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”<\/p>\n

Now, \u00a0if I want to ride a simple bike like the GBike, all I have to do is use my creative imagination to get a job at Google.<\/p>\n

Comment<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-creative"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40559,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242\/revisions\/40559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}