It’s a fast prototype for redesigning bicycle pedal system by Cen Si, Daruswat Wattanarojjananikorn, Seung Hyung Lee and me.

PROBLEMS

There are 3 main scenarios we get dirt from pedals when we biking.

1. Riders place pedals to their comfortable positions by legs and feet.

2. Pedals block their way to fold up stands.

3. Feet slip down from pedals.

 

DESIGN CHALLENGE

How to get rid of the dirt from pedals when riders stop?

 

SOLUTION

How might we let pedals go back to their original places automatically, so as to avoid placing them back by our legs and feet?

How might we strengthen the connections between pedals and feet for avoiding slipping down.

 

PROPOSAL

We put some weight at the bottom of the chaining, so as to make the pedal come back automatically. Our inspiration comes from old telephones. After each dialing, the dial always comes back to its original place.

For strengthening the connection between pedals and feet, we get inspiration from clipless pedals. But that pedals may make riders fall down as they first begin to use them. Besides riders have to use professional shoes that they usually have to carry 2 pairs of shoes. We want to use magnets instead of clips to connect pedals and feet. So it's easy to get on/down to/from pedals. For avoiding taking professional shoes all the time, we made a shoe cover which can tie to any shoes. 

FUTURE ITERATIONS

We want to use electric magnet in the future. We can control the intense of magnetic force during biking. The magnetic force get stronger when biking speed is high, get weaker when biking speed is low. So it's easier to control bikes during biking and safer to get down from pedals as stopping. For the technologies, we can use Arduino, accelerometer (on wheels) for fulfilling our goals.

PROCESS

DOMAIN MAPPING. We tried to map out the problems we are interested in. Our domains include safety, outfit, comfort.

BIKING IN DOWNTOWN, MANHATTAN.

BRAINSTORMING FOR 100 IDEAS. We did domain mapping again for figuring out more ideas. The domains include safety, communication, new form of bike, outfit, social issue, portability. And we also mapped out the problems we found through biking.

SELECT FINAL THEME. We figure out some appealing design challenges and ideas. Such as convert bike to different parts that we can wear them as apparel. It crosses LEGO concept to bike. Our apparels can compose a bike. So we don't need to carry a bike. But finally we want to give more concern to the minority problems which are often ignored by designers. That's why we choose "How to get rid of the dirt from pedals when riders stop?" as our final design challenge.

CRAFTING OUR FOAM BOARD PROTOTYPE.