Ziba asked me to collaborate in designing the ultimate utility bike for the Oregon Manifest Design Challenge. The next wave bicycle for the urban commuter. The project generated significant press including The New York Times, Core 77, CNET and numerous product design blogs and is the subject of “Fremont,” a coffee table book chronicling the Signal+Ziba collaboration in beautiful photographs and insightful story telling.
After a few team-building rides around town we set out to define our user and prescribe certain characteristics. Our design would center around the urban explorer who flows from neighborhood to neighborhood, collecting groceries and garage sale treasures with ease. We decided on pursuing prototypes based on the sidecar idea. Early prototypes were crude but functional, created using duct tape, foam core and what ever similarly sized containers we could find.
