Tokyo Bike City
The folks at Tokyo Bike have launched a bike rental cafe near Asakusa. Grab yourself a latte and a bike to tour the city while you’re at it. If you’re a savvy cyclist I can’t think of a better way to avoid the Tokyo train crowds.
Tokyo Bike City Tripper & Cafe
Wooden Bicycles
I can think of any number of reasons why building a bike out of wood is a dumb idea, but up until now I hadn’t seen these amazing marvels of wood craftsmanship.
Renovo Wooden Bikes
Renovo out of San Francisco are building performance wooden bikes that clock in anywhere from 16.5 to 20lbs — that’s hardly the heavy clunker I would imagine. Not only are they a respectable weight, but they’re also meant to perform up to the level of an aluminum or carbon fibre bike and offer an unparalleled level of shock dampening. Price tags run from $1500-$3000 USD for a frame. While this may seem expensive, it’s basically the same price as a high end frame in any other material. Aside from their race oriented wooden bikes they also offer a cool wooden commuter bike and a wooden 29′er mountain bike. Cool.
Sanomagic Wooden Bikes
On the ultra chi-chi front Sanomagic of Japan are creating the ultimate in handmade mahogany bicycles. While Renovo still employs metal dropouts and forks, Sanomagic is striving for the 100% wooden bike with everything including the fork and saddle being made from mahogany. Sueshiro Sano is a 9th generation ship builder who has turned is unique ability in woodwork to creating the ultimate wooden bike.
Electric Motorcycles
With much attention being lauded on the electric car the electric motorcycle has become a kind of black sheep in the race to redefine motorized transport. While previously reserved for scooters and other lackluster forms of transportation, the electric motor has now safely landed itself in the performance motorcycle market with two companies leading the charge — Zero and Brammo.
Both sport near silent engines and US government tax credit eligibility, but performance has been a bit slow to catch up with top speeds around 100 km/h or 60 mph; however, Brammo’s Empulse model seems set to break that barrier now with top speeds (for a short time) of 100 mph.
I’m imagining that in the very near future the electric motorcycle will be a viable option not only for transport, but for performance.
BMW M1 Concept Car
BMW has unveiled this concept M1 sports car which seemingly has design roots in a mish-mash of different places. While it has some Ferrari/Lamborghini Italian styling influence, it also screams KIT from Niterider. I could be wrong, but it bares some resemblance. What do you think? Is it time to get Chris Bangle back in the house?
