What do you think of this bike rack design?

Rubbish design, too limiting, only useful for the bare fixie skidder with their brakelessness, and other that can managed to fit their brake cable in the way.

I love problems, and I love thinking up solutions.

This thread has got me thinking.

What about a hammock?

Now what I mean by that is this: Imagine two large square tiles hinged fully along the bottom side. Now imagine a piece of strong but thin fabric about 1.4 times the height of the square tiles but same width... affix one end fully to the top side of each of the square tiles such that when the tiles are closed it hangs 0.7 of the length vertically inside the two tiles (closed hammock).

You should now have a hammock the width of the tiles, upon which a top tube could be placed for a side hung bicycle. When the rack is closed it would be a flat white tile (perhaps with design on), and when open it would expose the hammock for the bike to rest upon. When the bike isn't in the hammock it could open quite far so that it's easy to put the bike on it, and once the bike was on it the weight of pulling the centre of the hammock down would close the rack so that it held the bike snugly against the wall. The hammock also guarantees that nothing would scratch the paint of the bike as only fabric touches it.

Second variation is precisely the same as the first except the front tile and the fabric is sliced into 3 even vertical columns. This effectively gives three hammocks 1/3 width. Which now provides the "Hang by handlebars" scenario that this thread started on by closing the centre hammock. But as the support is fabric it would handle slightly different configurations of bars and accessories on bars (my Rohloff shifter). Mounting a bike by top tube is still possible by opening all three hammocks.

As the whole thing is based on two square tiles hinged at the bottom, it would collapse to being fully flat when not in use as well as provide space for some nice design on the front.

Also, as the interior tile is to be covered by the exterior tile, you can go overboard on the wall mount to ensure it can take the weight of an average to heavy bike without exposing the bolts and wall mount the majority of the time.

Anyhow, that's my dreamt up solution to the rack, offering two configurations of use, hidden away when not in use, and a fabric point of contact with the bike to ensure it's never scratched, and an ease of hanging the bike as the hammock would open wide when no weight is on it. It's also extremely simple to construct as well as to mount on the wall. The biggest questions are: What is the material for the fabric? What size are the square tiles?

Mechanics aside, if you want to charge £15 for it, I think you'll have to make it look a bit nicer. Look at the forms and radii of curves used in modernist and functionalist product design. It's entirely possible to make it look ten times better, whilst still being discreet (it's only a wall hook, after all, not a centrepiece to a room!) and keeping the manufacturing costs the same.

yeah this is really just a concept, if i were to start selling it, it would need a lot more work on the aesthetics

Rubbish design, too limiting, only useful for the bare fixie skidder with their brakelessness, and other that can managed to fit their brake cable in the way.

yeah but to be fair that encompasses a decent percentage of the population of london to be fair.. and tbh i really don't see the brake cable as a problem, as they're flexible, they'd just sit against it however they happen to be arranged.

I love problems, and I love thinking up solutions.

This thread has got me thinking.

What about a hammock?

Now what I mean by that is this: Imagine two large square tiles hinged fully along the bottom side. Now imagine a piece of strong but thin fabric about 1.4 times the height of the square tiles but same width... affix one end fully to the top side of each of the square tiles such that when the tiles are closed it hangs 0.7 of the length vertically inside the two tiles (closed hammock).

You should now have a hammock the width of the tiles, upon which a top tube could be placed for a side hung bicycle. When the rack is closed it would be a flat white tile (perhaps with design on), and when open it would expose the hammock for the bike to rest upon. When the bike isn't in the hammock it could open quite far so that it's easy to put the bike on it, and once the bike was on it the weight of pulling the centre of the hammock down would close the rack so that it held the bike snugly against the wall. The hammock also guarantees that nothing would scratch the paint of the bike as only fabric touches it.

Second variation is precisely the same as the first except the front tile and the fabric is sliced into 3 even vertical columns. This effectively gives three hammocks 1/3 width. Which now provides the "Hang by handlebars" scenario that this thread started on by closing the centre hammock. But as the support is fabric it would handle slightly different configurations of bars and accessories on bars (my Rohloff shifter). Mounting a bike by top tube is still possible by opening all three hammocks.

As the whole thing is based on two square tiles hinged at the bottom, it would collapse to being fully flat when not in use as well as provide space for some nice design on the front.

Also, as the interior tile is to be covered by the exterior tile, you can go overboard on the wall mount to ensure it can take the weight of an average to heavy bike without exposing the bolts and wall mount the majority of the time.

Anyhow, that's my dreamt up solution to the rack, offering two configurations of use, hidden away when not in use, and a fabric point of contact with the bike to ensure it's never scratched, and an ease of hanging the bike as the hammock would open wide when no weight is on it. It's also extremely simple to construct as well as to mount on the wall. The biggest questions are: What is the material for the fabric? What size are the square tiles?

a very nice idea.

with your first one, it would obviously have to be spaced a decent way out from the wall to allow room for the handlebars and pedals to not rest against the wall.

the second idea is a good one though.

It could just as easily be two bits of rope. Imagine my first design cut down the centre, and instead of solid arms, it could use your idea of a hammock, but with just a single piece of rope/small bit of fabric, then the pair could be mounted apart from each other at a distance that best suits the users bike..

i'm going to start work on version 2..

in the meantime, what do y'all think of this..

LEDs in your seatpost much?

http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/original_448556_pSW9d9tPmuCzNDrvdQIsWheKw.JPG
http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/original_448556_SDyUTlWSmAfRoJfnoui062X2d.JPG

it would have some sort of aa battery in the bottom which could be unscrewed to replace it.

thoughts?

this was done by a forumger

http://www.lfgss.com/thread5820.html

that's fucking cool, what's it made of? can't be too strong :S

it's an electroluminescent covering on a thomson seatpost (see the og thread linked)

oh yeah sorry missed that link. well that's cool! i'd be interested in manufacturing costs/battery life.

i wonder why it never went into production...

because tynan made it might be the key to that answer. never met the guy but he had a rep around here. Also made some anti theft paste that never made it into production...

Your LED one doesn't have an angle-adjustable seatclamp which would probably be a deal breaker for most but the general idea is great.

You should check out Tynan's single spoke front wheel too.

LexCarbon 700c clincher. on Vimeo

Mostly they don't go into production because he only makes them for fun.

i'm going to start work on version 2..

in the meantime, what do y'all think of this..

LEDs in your seatpost much?

thoughts?

Been done already by using a Knog back light, the downside is that it's a bit fiddly, changing battery isn't practical, and water can get in the hole causing likely damaged to the light and possibly the frame itself.

some constructor have seatpost (or seat tube) that are designed to accept certain light, such as the Exposure Flare by making a new body that merged with the seat tube.

lfgss - here to shoot down any idea anyone proposes

T

ahhh that sucks, i googled it but couldn't find an existing light up seatpost, never seen that one before ^^^

i'm determined to think of something which hasn't been done and people think is a good idea :P i'm working on the handlebar mounting bike rack mk2...

fefelarue, what rendering software do you use?

just the standard photoview built into solidworks mate

Looks good, especially considering it's a package renderer. I'm an Autodesk man so I've no experience of Solidworks... but that's a different thread.

thanks :) yeah it's a very good piece of software, although there's a huge amount of trial and error involved getting the renders to look good..

In regards to the bike hanger did something along the same lines this weekend using some cheap tool hooks, i think the two arms of those are much closer together than your idea. Managed to hang up a road bike and a couple of mountain bikes no problem with brakes etc. As also mentioned there is the option of hanging a few bikes using the wheel hooks in between. So not a bad idea at all, although i am tight and it was in the garage so the hangers would probably be too expensive for me!

okay how about something like this:
(not sure about the styling, but the general idea is the same)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7252/7748667190_414ee2c49b_h.jpg

That's basically my idea in it's entirety but with two mounts rather than a tile to hide the hammock.

I like, obviously.

I would say that the hammocks need to fall open when there is no bike in the rack, and that when there is a bike in the rack you need to be sure that it (the bars or top tube) doesn't whack the hammock supports.

But with minor modification to the actual hammock supports I think that those are really nice, and that they support 2 ways to rack the bike and as such are pretty versatile.

I would say that the hammocks need to fall open when there is no bike in the rack, and that when there is a bike in the rack you need to be sure that it (the bars or top tube) doesn't whack the hammock supports.

Some kind of spring that push the hammock out to make it easier to insert the bike perhaps?

Nah, gravity is a good tool to use.

They should fall open. So the design of the outer arm should be such that gravity pulls it away from the mount and opens the hammock.

yeah i modelled the fabric for when the bike is sitting in it, then didn't put the bike in for the render, so here's one with the bike in:
(when there's no bike, the weight of the front panel bit should pull it open and the fabric would be flat)