The judges have chosen their winners of the Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge; but there are three bikes that weren’t evaluated.
The bikes were part of the ‘Creative Collaborations’ that were new to the event this year. To push bike-making into the design field, Manifest organizers connected veteran, award-winning bike builders with global product design firms to see what they’d come up with.
The teams put their heads together and came up with some truly ground-breaking bikes. I already gave you an up-close look at one of them, now the Oregon Manifest wants you to pick a winner.
They’ve just opened up voting for the “People’s Choice” award for the three Creative Collaboration entries.
Get over to OregonManifest.com, read more in-depth reviews of each bike and then place your vote. A winner will be selected on October 6th.
I liked the ides behind each bike, they are all truly unique. But I think it is pretty obvious which one will win.
I like the Fuseproject/Sycip trike. To me it’s about the closest thing we’ve seen to the Christiania Bike, a vastly underrated design in our Bakfiets-crazy town IMO. I’m not concerned about battery-powered lights, and I think the Manifest judges have put too much emphasis on generators.
The IDEO/Rock Lobster Faraday is incredible in its integration of what are usually considered “accessories” by the bike industry. But it still can’t carry that much. Also I’m a bit concerned about the integration of accessories — like most components, I want to see them somewhat standardized so we’re not locked into stratospherically expensive proprietary parts.
As for the Ziba/Signal entry, I don’t think it’s the best sidecar implementation. I can probably carry more stuff in my nice and narrow Chariot Sidecarrier than with this unit. Also the Sidecarrier can carry a child –and not just a baby, as with some of the few Manifest entries capable of serving the needs of a family who wants to replace a car. I’d like to see a future manifest address child transport.
Child transport? Yes, good, but how about hauling two adults? The Xtravois 2 can squeeze four, and Manifest rules don’t say no tandems.
OK, that’s nice, but what utilitarian objective does that achieve? (For the record I’ve pedaled my wife around in our own cargo bike (Madsen), but I’ve never had an actual need to do so).
The point of the utility bike competition is to address the needs of individuals and families trying to bike instead of driving. I don’t see how carrying additional adults contributes significantly to that mission, because adults can generally pedal their own bikes.
Of course a bike capable of carrying additional adults does allow you to transport your drunk friends home after a night at the bar, so it does have that going for it in the vehicle-replacement column.
Utility can only be measured by each individual, so a 15lb fixie with a good shoulder bag could do it for some. Kid-hauling contributes zilch to my utility, but a bike with adult-carrying capability can surely carry a child (might need a seat add-on). Carrying an adult passenger is very common in the Netherlands (even though they’re overloading the rack by at least 50%, so I’d like to see the design account for that load) so I expect at least some in Portland would find similar use for it. Some can’t ride on their own, some just might prefer to ride with a partner. Multiple-occupancy biking seems less explored than single-occupancy, to me, and particularly so in “utility” class bikes. I’d like to see OM make its evaluation criteria tougher than we saw this time because I think that would drive innovation.
Hub-powered lights totally win for one particular application — my kids’ bikes. And to the extent that I am only fractionally less careful about my own battery maintenance, my bike too.
I’m not a big fan of the sidecars — too wide.
Second thought in favor of hub-powered lights — simple convenience.
Look at all the crazy things that have been added to cars in the name of convenience — power windows, power antennas, retractable seat belts. Cup-holders, radio pre-sets. Automatic on/off lights. Turn signals, automatically resetting turn signals. Once upon a time, automatic choke, automatic transmission, electric starter.
Not having to take a piece of your vehicle indoors to charge its batteries, that is a nice thing.
Especially if this is about reaching a wider market, either through function or design, convenience sells.
It seems like Peoples choice should include all the bikes not just the collarboration entries? Out of so many awesome bikes why should the choice be limited to Three.
I pick the Quixote/Clever Cycles collarboration as my favorite.