Carry a Bike on Your Back?

A new composite bike you can carry around town

Imagine being able maneuver through urban traffic with greater ease. That’s the thought Grant Ryan had when he developed the YikeBike (named from the surprised reaction he observed when showing people the product). Ryan, who acts as CEO of the New Zealand-based YikeBike Limited, hopes the mini electric-powered vehicle will explode in densely-populated cities and provide composites manufacturers a new outlet for business in the recreation market.

The small two-wheeler, weighing approximately 21 pounds, features a body made from carbon fiber. The bike is uniquely designed to fold up and store in a bag the rider can carry with them. Ryan says the carbon fiber helps greatly in meeting the portability requirement. “Carbon composites have such great strength and low weight. When you’re carrying a bike, those things make an awful lot more difference than just pushing it along like a cyclist does,” he says.

Ryan found that manufacturing with carbon fiber worked well for mass prototyping. “We just used wooden molds and hand lay-up parts of carbon. It was a rapid process. The good thing about the way these are made is that if something breaks, you just put a couple of layers on and it’ll be fine,” he says.

The bike can only attain speeds of approximately 12 miles per hour, but the vehicle is designed for travel in densely-populated cities such as London and New York. “In these areas, you go so slow in a car, but might have to walk a far distance to your home from a train station. A large part of the world will have the freedom to take the YikeBike on a train and into tiny apartments. It will solve the transit problem for a lot of people in congested urban environments,” says Ryan.

Ryan is currently working on licensing the technology to other automobile and bicycle companies. A more mainstream model would be made out of injection-molded, reinforced plastics, which will result in a cheaper model on the market. Meanwhile, the carbon YikeBike  is scheduled to be released officially next year, and will be priced in the $5,200-$5,800 range.