The Next “Little” Thing

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!

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:

Via: Treehugger.com