BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Royal College of Art alumni designed cycle products were brought to the Boxpark, Shoreditch branch of Bike Republic this month.
The striking Strida folding bike and Kranium Helmet and Kranium e-bike were all designed by Masters of Industrial Design from the Royal College.
Strida (£499) – a belt-driven folding bike with a distinctive ‘A’ shaped collapsible ‘wheel along’ frame – was designed by Mark Sanders (RCA from 1983 to ’85).
Possibly less familiar to the trade is the Kranium Helmet (£79.99), designed by Anirudha Surabhi at the RCA in 2010.
Produced by Abus and backed by the RCA, tech entrepreneur Jonathon Cole and the James Dyson Fellowship, the Kranium Helmet uses eco-friendly honeycomb board, encased in a waterproof acrylic shell for a lightweight, safe, durable cycle helmet.
The helmet is said to offer three times more protection than polystyrene-based helmets.
Also designed by Surabhi is the Kranium Electric bike with a key feature being the integrated battery which becomes ‘a natural part of the design of the bicycle’. With a 30-mile range, Li-ion Panasonic battery, front suspension and disk brakes, it retails at £1,895.
Bike Republic
Unit 6 Boxpark Bethnal Green Road London, E1 6GY t: 0207 148 5574
UPDATE: No sooner had we posted this story than we got wind that Bike Republic has already moved on with a new set up for its Boxpark store, this time a Single Speed intallation. Take a look at the video below:
