Photo: Dominic Hargreaves
See it In Action in the Video Below
The Contortionist is a folding bike created by 24-year-old Royal
College of Art student Dominic Hargreaves. It's got quite a beautiful
design, but what makes it extra special is that the whole thing folds
into a package that fits inside the 26-inch wheels. It's the best of
both worlds: It folds down to a small enough package that you can
easily carry or store it, but it doesn't have the ride quality problems
that make tiny-wheeled folding bikes unattractive to many. You really
need to see the video of the Contortionist in action (below) to see how
brilliant it is!
Photo: Dominic Hargreaves
Production Model Could be Coming Soon
The Contortionist has been shortlisted for this year's James Dyson Award
(and we wouldn't be surprised if it won). That could mean £10,000 for
Dominic Hargreaves, but that's nothing compared to the commercial
interest in the bike. The Guardian
reports that three companies have already shown interest in making a
production model, which would make the Contortionist "one of those
extremely rare items that move directly from design student project
into the shops."
How much would a production model cost? Dominic doesn't think it would be more than £400. "There's no reason why not. There's nothing on the bike that couldn't be mass produced in a bike factory."
Enough words. Just watch the video:
From Treehugger.com