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Flotspotting: Jose Rivera's "Ice Cream" Concept Bike

By Ray Hu - August 30, 2011

in Flotspotting | Cars

Industrial design student Jose Rivera still has one more year to go before he completes his degree at Detroit's College for Creative Studies. Young though he may be, his work under the moniker Carousel—which, according to Rivera, captures the "playful and simple, qualities I try to put in my work"—was a featured at the FORM Design Show this year, and his work merits a feature on Core as well.

Rivera's "Ice Cream," a concept bike project from November 2010, recently caught my eye, both for its unconventional construction and eye-catching colorway. In fact, these were main objectives:The goal of this project was to design an affordable, practical and stylish bicycle for the urban commuter... The bike is made entirely out of repurposed or salvaged parts and materials, making it both affordable and sustainable.

Well, it's one thing to salvage old bicycles and reuse the parts, but Rivera is proposing a more radical approach to framebuilding. Most bikes—whether they're made out of steel or aluminum, carbon fiber or bamboo—are made from tubes, arranged in a diamond shape to form the unmistakable silhouette of a bicycle (though we've seen a fair share of exceptions). Rivera's concept forgoes "traditional tubes and welded joints" for a "flat bolted frame":The frame is made from sheets of recycled aluminum that have been cut with a water jet. The seat, front tube, and bottom bracket are then secured to the frame using tamper resistant bolts. This construction method requires a fraction of the time and labor to build compared to a traditional bike.

The absence of any welds on the frame means the bike can be broken down by hand with a screwdriver, making shipping, storing and customizing the bike much easier and efficient for the user.

In other words, Rivera's bicycle concept combines the build-it-yourself philosophy of IKEA with the sustainable tenet of upcycling raw materials.

Rivera drew inspiration from iconic Swiss bag company Freitag for sourcing his materials: "Freitag... is known for constructing its products from discarded seat belts, airbags and billboard tarp. These materials produce a graphic look and feel unique to each bag." Thus, the name comes from how the colors and graphics of the bicycle actually turned out, evoking "the swirls of color found in tubs of ice cream."

It certainly looks pretty sweet, but I'm really curious as to how it rides. I imagine the flatcut frame isn't nearly as stiff as a traditional tubular one, but alas I lack the materials science knowledge to understand the functional implications of Rivera's design. Anyone care to enlighten us in the comments?

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Adam Malone

9 years ago

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Well from a materials science point of view, this frame/design will be extremely susceptible to torsional forces, either cause by hard turning/leaning or cranking on the pedals. I think as long as a commuter doesn't go mountain biking with this or mash on the pedals too hard it should hold up fine. Torsional stability is huge for mountain bikes and high performance road bikes (companies like Pinarello have even designed asymetrical frames to counter this), but commuting does not see the same demands in mechanical performance. I could see the connection point between the rear triangle and the front triangle being an issue/failure point.

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slippyfish

13 years ago

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It'll ride fine as long as you are the 80 lbs girl in the photos.

I agree w Andrew - why does it try to look like a typical double-diamond with a completely different construction. Skeumorphs abound!
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David

13 years ago

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The rear triangle looks flimsy. Any torque on the pedals will cause the rear wheel to rub. And for the money shot, please have the seat level. The nose down is not rideable and looks silly.
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larry parker

13 years ago

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The concept for this bike was dreamt up as a collaboration that resulted in two different bikes. In the end both have limitations due to the design, but offer a new method for construction.

http://cargocollective.com/larryparkerdesign#1189786/Flat-frame-bike
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adam

13 years ago

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tubes are used because they are relatively stiff in all directions, including torsional stress. This design would be stiff in the vertical plane, but pedalling applies forces from the side. There's a reason there are no photos of anyone riding this otherwise complete prototype. It would ride like a wet noodle, or possibly just fold over on itself.

AUBC - Another Useless Bike Concept
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tim Rowledge

13 years ago

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Cute, but you should take a look at US patent 4139072 - which is for a motorcycle frame but seems likely to cover a lot of the points of this bicycle. The good news is the patent is from 1979 and so is almost certainly retired by now. Dawson built a few small motorcycles to this design and they worked reasonably, so a bike ought to have some possibilities.

Using recycled Al is nice but it looks like it uses up a quite large chunk for each side frame. If the triangle were cut as separate parts you'd get a lot more frames from each sheet of plate. Not to mention making it possible for the owner to alter the frame size to suit their leg length etc.
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redfood

13 years ago

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I wouldn't worry about the stiffness as much as I'd worry about those bolts holding over time. Aluminum is pretty soft and bikes are subjected to a lot of force and vibrations.
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Andrew

13 years ago

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I don't have any insight into the material science either...but I'm wondering why at least it still looks like a traditional bike frame. Was there any experimentation on the designer's part to see which form might draw out the most strength from the sheet material? Or might porduce the least amount of waste? Or both?
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M4RK

13 years ago

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Old idea, i did something exactly te same in 2005
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