DESIGN NAME: AKO Balance Bike
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Learn Cycling
INSPIRATION: Cycling is a big step in a kid's life. But it is not always so easy.
The bike can be very heavy for toddlers, difficult to handle and balance. It can even be scary after a fall to go again on the bike.
Learning how to cycle is a unique moment shared between parents and their kids, that's why our goal was to make the experience as enjoyable and memorable as possible.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The design of the bike is driven by a step-by-step learning process in order to make the learning process more kids-friendly and encouraging by making every progress visible.
The main focus was to make it as light as possible, to be easy to handle. The shape of the frame is designed to lower the center of gravity in order to be easier to control and balance.
The geometry of the bike allows kids to not be stuck under their bike in case of a fall. Every detail is thought to make the learning process intuitive.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: The cycling learning process is divided in different steps. The bike makes each of these steps visible so the kids and their parents can really see the evolution. It's evolving with the kid to make it more encouraging and memorable.
The design is thought to let kids explore by themselves while being totally safe.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started in October 2016 in ISD Pune (India), and ended in February 2017. The project was followed by Elise Loeuille and Matthieu Germain, from Goldcross Cycles (Australia).
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Materials were important because of the main priority to lighten the bike as much as possible. The frame is made of recycled plastic and the structure is hollow.
The goal of our prototype was more to validate the final shape so we had a different process, using bent and laser-cutted sheet metal and acrylic panels.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: 12" wheels allow kids to handle the bike easier and earlier.
The estimated weight of the frame is 2.5kg, allowing kids to carry the bike.
TAGS: bicycle, bike, bicycle, kids, learning, ako, prototype, balance
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: The starting point was to fully understand our users : kids, but also their parents because they are all part of the experience. We gave different bicycles to the kids and identified where to act.
To understand how toddlers feel while discovering a bike for the first time, we tried to ride an over-weighted bicycle to match approximately the ratio kid's weight / bike's weight. Riding a 50kg was not so easy ! We could identify more problems and get more inputs that the previous researches didn't give us.
CHALLENGE: Understanding kids was very important. They are so complex and interesting. They are not just "smaller users", they have a different approach, different skills, different proportions also. It was a great challenge and the whole team had fun designing AKO !
ADDED DATE: 2019-02-13 15:15:25
TEAM MEMBERS (6) : Corentin Bricout, Abhishek Yenji, Nicolas Izard, Pralekh Bhuyan, Prathamesh Thombre and Sumanyu Patel
IMAGE CREDITS: Corentin Bricout
Abhishek Yenji
Nicolas Izard
Pralekh Bhuyan
Prathamesh Thombre
Sumanyu Patel
PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: The project belongs to Goldcross Cycles / Rebel
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