If you accept been account this blog for a while, you will bethink Torkel Dohmers’ “ThisWay” concept, the acceptable access in the Bicycle Architecture “commuter bike for the masses” architecture antagonism a brace of years ago. You may additionally bethink that the aces was not after controversy. Bodies seemed to either adulation it or abhorrence it, but Torkel’s abstraction did atom some absorbing altercation on the blog. Previous bike designs with chip roofs were referenced in the comments… best conspicuously the Cycle Sol, which Ron at Cozy Beehive additionally mentioned in a blog post. The Cycle Sol was aloof one archetype though. If you browse through Bicycling Science or agnate publications, you will see several accomplished architecture attempts at a bike that will accumulate its user dry in the rain.
The latest covered architecture that has appear to my absorption is the semi-recumbent Rain Bike for the Belgian Column Group, advised by Frederic Boonen. Agnate to the “This Way” concept, the artist describes the Rain Bike as “a gap amid bike and car.” Unlike Torkel’s concept, this one is a trike with an electric agent to abetment commuters (or mail carriers) with a burden amount up to 60 kg. Even admitting it is a trike, Frederic credibility out that the all-embracing amplitude of 120cm makes it accessible on bike paths and roads.
So what do you anticipate of the Rain Bike…or the abstraction of a covered bike/trike in general? For assertive applications, including mail delivery, I anticipate it makes a lot of sense.
Update: A few bodies accept bidding affair about the polycarbonite windshield in the comments. Frederic aloof beatific me an email advertence that “the window is layered with nanocoating (Fluor Carbon) based on the Lotus Effect.”
Rain Bike Modification
