Bikes which fold up aren’t new, but the idea does tend to be along the same lines as most new products – you can’t really retrofit your old bike, so you need to buy a whole new one. But thanks to a new mechanism designed by Philip Crewe, the day when you can turn your favorite ride into a folding bike just got a little closer.
Crewe’s design is based on the addition of two different parts to the frame, one locking hub and two hinged pieces, but other than that, there is no other major fabrication involved. The biggest limitation to this design is that it only works with fixed gear bikes, as any bicycle with gears will have to also have couplers on the shifting cables (or the brake cables, in the case of a singlespeed).
“With this project I created a practical folding bicycle that is not compromised by its folding process. The solution is a simple one; two hinges and a torque coupling mean the bicycle can fold small enough to be taken on public transport, and what’s more the mechanism could be applied to many types of bike, even some suspension designs. – Crewe”
But hang on a second before you grab your wallet and start looking for a way to order these couplings, as they aren’t in production yet – the bike you see here is the first rideable prototype. And Crewe says he doesn’t have any plans to patent or license the design, so it might just be a one-off. However, if you think this idea is worthy of financial backing, you might consider contacting him about it.
Here’s a short video of the bike in action:
[via DesignBoom]
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