Eco 7 Bicycle Folds to Fit Within a Suitcase
by Dan Mendes, 10/13/09
Although the idea of a folding bike isn’t new or novel, Mexican designer Victor Aleman has managed to spice things up a bit with his Eco 7 Folding bike. Aleman has designed a modern folding bike with wheels that compartmentalize and disassemble into a neat and tidy package – a perfect space saver for the urbanite.
Although there are a variety of folding bikes on the market today, the one limiting factor in how small they can go is the size of the bicycle’s wheels. Recognizing this, Victor Aleman designed both wheels of the Eco 7 bike to fold up with the clever use of various hinged points. The spokes fold into the rim, hiding them from view and allowing the rest of the wheel to fold. Through the use of double pivot joints the 6 rim modules fold into a stack of curved sections, similar to a collapsed measuring stick. When reassembling the tires, the spokes automatically fold out towards the center to allow easy connection to the center of the wheel.
The frame of the bike also folds by allowing the frame tubes to slide into one another and then folding on hinges into a bundle. The brakes, crank, handlebars and chain are also removable and collapsable. The most intriguing part of this concept is that once completely disassembled, it appears as though the bike can be placed into a suitcase-like carrying case which would be a huge space-saver at home and extremely convenient for hopping on a train or subway.
Thats really neat, I wonder how it rides.