This is the Cyclomer Amphibious Bike. You ride as normal on the roads running on the two main spheres which are equip with rubber treads. When you approach deep water, lower the external stabilising spheres and voila! your bike will float. Pop on some wellies and you’re ready to go.
The rear drive sphere has paddles to help push through the water, what could possibly be the down side ? Note the relaxed look of the rider as he cruises across the pond in straw hat and pipe. Total Genius !

PS : How do you steer on the water ?

Cyclomer

ColaLife capitalises on the strange fact that many remote villages in the developing world have a reliable deliveries of Coke-a-Cola, but are often in need of basic medicine. ColaLife founders Simon and Jane Berry developed a packaging solution that utilised the space between bottles of Coke in a crate. These “Aidpods” can be sealed with medicine to help villagers, particularly children, recover from acute illnesses. Simon and Jane we salute you. If you would like to donate or find out more then visit the ColaLife website.

Cola delivery bike in Nyimba, Zambia

It’s a finely produced Super8 film set to music and located in an anonymous location stateside. The big skys and empty roads are reminiscent of the endless summers of the 70′s. It reminds of a time before television numbed our brains, a time when out door fun was the most fun to be had and and time before health and safety stole our childhoods.

Enjoy the video; then get out there and do something fun.
I’m off to try some grass sledging.

Ski Boys

Three items in particular caught our eye.

The Bicycle Academy were showcasing their famous frame building c0urses and also presented a selection of useful tools and jigs for sale. One of their exhibits was a miniature frame, built to practice mitring and brazing without wasting materials. How cute ?

Loopwheel.com were looking for crowd funding to support manufacture of their innovative sprung wheel. They gave a convincing argument on the benefits of tangetially sprung wheels, it’s an interesting concept. Head over to Kickstarter to give them a boost.

Finally Donhou presented a 100mph bicycle ! No one could fail to be inpressed by that 104 tooth front sprocket!

Bespoked 2013

The donor car is an old Mercedes saloon and the construction is base around the rear axle which forms the main frame of the bicycle. There is clever use of door handles to make brake levers, head lining to make grip tape and seat upholstery to make the seat cover. Watch the video here to see other neat ideas such as using the cam belt as the drive chain and rear light reflectors on the pedals.

Now it’s finished, people will be given the chance to ride the bike and once it has completed as many miles as the car did we can consider the car to have paid its debt. This is a nice idea and the resulting bike looks really good.

CARMA

This front rack was manufactured for a friend of ours. Two flat plates were used to provide a strong level foundation for the rack. Then a simple tube and wire deck was brazed in place. To finish it was painted a cool battleship grey to match the bike and topped with a rustic orange crate. Very chic.

Raleigh Caprice Front Rack

This is the “Beetle Balance Bike” from Leap Year Industries.
We all know balance bikes are a great way to learn, enabling kids to learn the concept of balance and counter-steering before adding the propulsion part of the system. The Beetle bike is another balance bike, but it’s super cool – just look at it.
Better still, the wood used is taken from trees which have been killed by the Pine Beetle, wood which otherwise is just scrap.

Just one question – can we have an adult sized one ? Imagine that !

Beetle Bike

We especially like the fact that is can hold two six-packs of your favourite drink (inset).

Click the image to find out more about this product and a nice video of it in action in New York.

Bent Basket