Cork bike saddle amplifies the eco-friendly quotient of your ride

Posted on 02/12/2023 by Ida Torres

There was a huge increase in bicycles and all biking accessories during the pandemic as people tried to find alternative means of transportation. Now that we’re almost back to whatever normal is, bikers are still a huge segment of the transportation market for a lot of reasons. One of these is that it’s more eco-friendly that cars since it does not use any fuel. But there has also been an interest in making the bicycles themselves even more eco-friendly.

Designer: Frame Cycles

One new product that can make your bike more sustainable is the FR-1 Bike Saddle since it is made from reconstituted cork and grade 5 titanium. It was able to do away with the usual three plastic layers of the bike saddle and replace it with the single piece of cork. What’s more, this cork is able to have all the properties of those plastic layers: structural rigidity, foam comfort, and weather resistance.

According to Frame Cycles, they were able to create the first batch of these cork saddles by using a firm grade of reconstituted cork so it has the similar hardness to the usual leather bike saddle. This also means that you will have to spend at least two weeks for the cork saddle to break in and start to soften. They will eventually release variants with different grades of cork. The process of sourcing the materials from the cork trees is also less harmful as stripping the bark every 8-10 years boosts the carbon consumption 3-5 times.

Before the cork saddle gets to you, the components are harvested in Portugal and then molded when it reaches Glasgow, Scotland. This is also where the parts are treated with water-based lacquer and then integrated into the welded titanium substructure. Knowing this entire process, it will not surprise you that the FR-1 Bike Saddle is a bit expensive at around $130. But of course, it’s a small (expensive) price to pay if you want a more eco-friendly bike to accompany your sustainable lifestyle.

The post Cork bike saddle amplifies the eco-friendly quotient of your ride first appeared on Yanko Design.

EyeLights Rocket One is a futuristic high-performance electric motorcycle with a fighter jet-like HUD

Posted on 15/11/2023 by Gaurav Sood

Building a winning motorbike design pretty much always starts off with a well-thought-out concept blueprint. However, taking it to the prototyping stage takes a lot of input. After all, barely a handful of concept designs make it past the blueprint stage and onto to the real deal.

The EyeLights Rocket One is one such successful example of a bike design done right. In fact, it took just three months to take it from a mere sketch to a working prototype. Alan Derosier, the lead designer of this augmented reality-assisted motorbike created for EyeLights SAS, managed to strike the right balance between form and function.

Designer: Alan Derosier

The Rocket One electric bike made its inaugural real-life presence at EICMA 2023 which is not surprising. According to Alan, the bike’s initial design revolved around fine-tuning the proportions and silhouettes. Then the masses and refining of the surfaces was done. That approach is pretty similar to how cars are designed. The result is a performance-oriented ride that houses huge batteries for power delivery and a respectable range.

This powerful bike has the apparent influences of the Lotus bikes, but we dare not call it a copy by any stretch of the imagination. The bike can go from 0-100km/h in just 2.6 seconds, and 1200 Nm of torque on the rear wheel produces 180 horsepower for stunning performance for an electric bike. Add to the mix a more than 400 km of range on a single charge. That is attributed to the large batteries hiding in that sleek body.

While the form factor is something to behold, the real deal is its futuristic augmented reality-aided navigation system. That comes as no surprise as EyeLights specializes in AR applications, and the Rocket One adapts its technologies from what fighter jet pilots use. The HUD of the accompanying helmet has a cluster of vital information displayed in the field of view of the rider.

For now, the bike is on the waiting list for interested buyers and we hope it doesn’t take forever to actually be available for purchase.

The post EyeLights Rocket One is a futuristic high-performance electric motorcycle with a fighter jet-like HUD first appeared on Yanko Design.

J.Laverack’s Limited-Edition Aston Martin .1R Bicycle Uses the Same Process as an Actual Aston Martin

Posted on 01/11/2023 by Gabriel Moss

What happens when one of the most luxurious automotive brands in the world teams up with one of the most luxurious bicycle brands in the world? That would be the J.Laverick Aston Martin .1R — the direct offspring of a fruitful partnership between the two high-flying British luxury brands, who are jointly calling it the “world’s most bespoke, advanced and meticulously engineered road bicycle”. This design is definitely bespoke, considering that no two Aston Martin .1R bikes will be created the same —and it isn’t exactly clear how many will be constructed in total — seeing as how every purchaser who orders from Aston Martin’s “multi-award-winning” online configurator will receive a personal invitation to get their own unique Aston Martin .1R fitted at Aston Martin’s HQ in Gaydon, UK.

Designer: J.Laverack x Aston Martin

Evidently, Aston Martin’s Gaydon HQ is where a new owner can individually select and install their bells and whistles (literally) after mixing and matching Aston Martin’s signature color schemes — which mirror those of the prestige British auto designer’s most popular luxury vehicles — on the tubes, lugs, forks, stem, seat post, and handlebar drops via the aforementioned configurator. For what it’s worth, yes, you can also choose between saddle and handlebar type. Right now, it’s not clear how much this will all cost, but it makes sense to expect a higher price than most other J.Laverack bicycles, which start at around $5,000.

This advanced titanium road bike design uses a mixture of 3D-printed titanium lugs and sculpted carbon fiber tubes for a lightweight yet sturdy build without any exposed bolts on the outer body. Aston Martin’s designers call this a world first, and I can’t deny it looks like a cross between a bike and a sports car. Though, calling it a “sports bike” would be redundant. That said, Aston Martin’s Executive VP and Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman, dug into this idea even further in an official press release, calling the Aston Martin .1R a “titanium hypercar on two wheels.”

Its max speed probably doesn’t equal that of a shiny new Aston Martin supercar, but it’s likely the speediest (and sturdiest) bicycle we’ve ever seen. Several elements of the ($3 million) Aston Martin Valkyrie’s engineering and design process made their way over to the .1R, including the bicycle’s 40-micron badges. The wheels themselves, plus the stem, also use similar processes. According to Aston Martin, “The hypercar’s wheel design can be glimpsed in miniature in the titanium piston caps of the brakes on the bike, while if you inspect the beautifully machined cups on the threaded bottom bracket of the .1R and you will notice parallels with the central wheel nuts on an Aston Martin Valkyrie.”