WOW Bikes: Ron Arad reinvents the wheel

[xchrom]

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/wow-bikes-ron-arad-reinvents-the-wheel-2331724.html

Londoners have become used to their distinctive blue "Boris bikes", but from today, a much more outlandish fleet of two-wheelers will be available. Called WOW Bikes, they have been customised by top creatives and after being used by visitors to a West End hotel for the next 10 weeks, they will be auctioned to raise money for the Elton John Aids Foundation.

The basic bicycles are the work of a London-based, designer, Benedict Radcliffe, who once created a pedal version of a Lamborghini. They have been customised by the designer Ron Arad, singer Paloma Faith, illustrator Natasha Law and fashion designers Patrick Cox and Alice Temperley.

Faith's bike "oozes vintage glamour and music", according to Radcliffe. Piano keys feature on the mudguard, a Fifties radio is set into the handlebars and the whole bike is covered in a feather design. Arad "uses biomorphic shapes created from his favoured medium, steel... reinventing the wheel, quite literally". Cox's bike is "based on an old-school three-wheeled, two wheels at the front Miami ice-cream bike... the fact that there is a big box on the front means things can be hidden in there – a 12-volt battery powering the music system, fluoro lighting and a coffee machine."


***very short article -- this is all there is.

[Kolesar]

1. Looks heavy

and expensive.

[MineralMan]

2. Not to mention noisy, plus...

The flexing will quickly cause metal fatigue cracks at the outermost circle of rivets, and that will make the thing fail. But, it wasn't designed to be a practical wheel, just a cool one.

It's more of a conceptual thing than a usable one. It's art.

[Kolesar]

3. It has a spiritual quality, then!

Very moving

[SpoonFed]

8. Is that polite urban cyclist talk for...

looks like an unpleasant piece of designer shit to ride?

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. I expect it has a great deal of air resistance

A far cry from something like this:

[wtmusic]

5. A whole Arad bike:

Cool looking, but likely heavy and inefficient. If you don't mind paying that price for fashion it's perfect (i.e., if you don't ride it very much).

[SpoonFed]

10. The crank seems to have a large hole in it...

representing the large hole in the designer´s head. The world certainly needs more expensive, unrideable bikes.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Yet another case of fashion over function

Things must be going well there for such frippery

[pscot]

7. It's hard to improve on perfection

"The bicycle can be described in under fifty words: a steerable machine comprising two wheels with pneumatic tyres, mounted in-line on a frame with rotating front forks, propelled by the rider's feet turning pedals attached by cranks to a chainwheel, and by a loop of chain to sprockets on the rear wheel. It's very simple. The bicycle can be ridden, on a reasonable surface, at four or five times the pace of walking, with the same amount of effort — making it the most efficient, self-powered means of transportation ever invented. " Robert Penn, "It's All About the Bike"

[Odin2005]

9. Yuppie shit.

[Confusious]

11. reinvent implies "improved"

looks like he deinvented the bike.