Plastic bike Contemporary classics

The very essence of the bicycle hasn't changed dramatically since its invention.

Much like the airplane, that since the Wright brothers, kept its basic principle – heavier than air while using it to elevate itself. Probably not surprising that the famous brothers, had their own bicycle shop while building airplanes.

In spite of technology and its many innovations, the basic idea behind the bicycle is still alive and dominant: a simple device that translates your legs' choreography into linear movement, and allows you to travel elegantly wherever you wish to go.

Light, lean, cheap, democratic, and above all – so much fun.

When I was a student in London, studying to be a car designer in the RCA, I literally lived on my bicycle. For two years, I never used any public transport or private cars. Day, night, summer, winter, warm, cold, near or far, there was no question: I would cycle there. I even cycled to College in the snow, in the Christmas of 86'.

In the past decade, on top of using a worn out old mule of a bike to move around town, commuting between home, market, university and studio, I've developed a strong addiction to my road bike. I use it every weekend to climb mountains with a small group of friends, and at least once a year in an intimate encounter with the Alps or Pyrenees.  

I am still deeply in love with the classic diamond shape frame, with its horizontal top tube, and although I am seduced by the muscular time trial bikes, I still think the classic ones are unbeatable, at least visually.

It is therefore easy to imagine my enthusiasm when our studio was approached by a private entrepreneur who had a vision: let's build a city bike, made entirely from plastic.

Working with an experienced engineer in this field, we developed quickly several raw concepts. We didn't censor ourselves, and simply expressed any new idea we had.

We got the green light to share our initial design concepts.

We started with a rather heavy and busy version, with quite a bit of motorcycle genes in its DNA.

We then moved into another extreme, where we covered the whole bicycle with a plastic skirt, in the quest of a totally new identity and character.

Our next direction was an opposite one, where we tried to empty the bike and remain with the very essence, even if exaggerated

After several more concepts, we realized we should not try to revolutionize the bike's morphology, but rather respect its original DNA, and maybe modify one aspect of its structure, using the new material's special abilities.