Sueshiro Sano was born into a Japanese shipwright family that stretched back nine generations. He built his first ship at the age of 13 and continued to hone his craft into adulthood, but what makes him stand out now is the entirely different direction he decided to take his skills in.

Sano uses his skills and tools to make some of the most remarkable bespoke bikes we’ve ever seen. Working with Honduran mahogany, Sano custom hand-crafts the lightweight bikes for each buyer based on the buyer’s specific measurements and needs.

Each bike is a work of functional art. A single bike takes up to three months to make and can cost up to $20,000. But by all accounts, the bikes are more than worth their price. They’ve garnered a cult following among cyclists and bike experts.

But for Sano, the goal isn’t about gaining praise for his work. He simply makes the bikes – and ensures their superior quality – as a point of personal pride. His traditional woodworking techniques have taken the grandiosity of a hand-built ship and made it (somewhat) more accessible in the form of incredibly stylish, gorgeously crafted one-of-a-kind bicycles.

The post Ship to Shore: Bespoke Wooden Bikes Built by a Shipwright first appeared on Gajitz.

Biking is supposed to be a convenient and relaxing way to get around, but so many bikers are saddled with the mental and physical baggage of trying to prevent theft. Some cyclists take their front tires with them when they lock their bikes up; others remove the seats. In most cases, they carry a big lock wherever they go to secure the bike at their destination.

Seatylock is a novel answer to the worries of cyclists everywhere. It integrates a lock right into the bike’s seat, eliminating extra baggage while making it easy to keep your bike safe from thieving miscreants.

When you get to where you’re going, the entire seat comes off of the bike frame. Stowed underneath are a few metal arms that fold out to become a lock which loops around a bike rack or the nearest stable object. A quick lock with a small key and your bike is secure – all told, it takes about 30 seconds to remove the seat and secure the lock.

The Seatylock comes with an adapter that lets it fit onto just about any bike, and is available in both “trekking” and “comfort” models to suit your specific biking habits. A special safety adapter ensures that your seat won’t go wobbling off of its post mid-ride.

The team behind the unconventional lock clearly had a great time testing its strength if the video above is any indication. The Seatylock couldn’t be broken by chain cutters, a saw, or ice spray and a mallet. It can stand up to .6 tons of pressure, which is definitely strong enough to deter any hoodlums from taking off with your ride. Kickstarter pledges starting at $75 will get you a Seatylock of your own.

The post Safety Seat: Ingenious Bike Seat Transforms Into a Lock first appeared on Gajitz.

If you ride a bike regularly, you probably know that sinking feeling of getting to the spot where you parked your bike and realizing that it’s been pilfered. The Yerka Project was created by three engineering students in Chile who knew that feeling all too well.

The engineers created a bike that they say is impossible to steal. The logic is pretty simple: to steal a bike, a thief has to break the lock. If the lock is formed from the frame of the bike, stealing the bike would render it useless.

The Yerka bike is seriously stylish and doesn’t give away its secret until you get to your destination. You then unlatch the bike’s seat post and rotate two small parts on the frame.

The rotated pieces provide a negative space where the anchoring object – a tree, lamp post, bike rack, or whatever else is handy – can fit. Then simply slide the seat post through the two rotated pieces, remove the locking pin, and go about your business knowing your bike is safe.

Part of the bike’s appeal lies in the fact that it makes carrying around a lock unnecessary. Of course, it is still possible for a determined thief to nick the tires – but the idea is that they won’t bother with just the tires if they can’t get the whole bike.

The post Unstealable Bike Uses its Own Frame as an Ingenious Lock first appeared on Gajitz.

Not every cyclist enjoys having a kickstand on their bike to prop it up when they stop somewhere. The alternatives are to lean it up against something or, if you’re lucky, to secure it to a nearby bike rack. When neither of those options are available but you’ve got a friend riding with you, the Bicyclick is a handy little thing to have around.

The Bicyclick is a simple two-piece device that attaches to the handlebars of your bike. One piece sports a ball at the end and the other piece, a socket. When you want to stand two or more bikes up, you just click the ball into the socket and the bikes lean against each other.

Multiple bikes can be connected, even if they are different heights. When you’re out travelling with a group, you can click all of your bikes together so no one has to bother with lying their ride down on the ground. A clever little rubber band comes with the device to wrap around your brakes, keeping your bike(s) from wandering off without you.

The Click-Base is meant to give you the same convenience when you’re at home or work. It’s a small plastic piece that attaches to a wall or any other vertical surface to hold your Bicyclick-equipped bike upright. If you live in an apartment or work in an office where you have to keep your bike inside and near you, the Base will keep your walls clear of those annoying black marks.

The inventors have already figured out production for straight and riser handlebar versions, but they are raising funds on Kickstarter to start producing the drop handlebar version. A minimum pledge of $25 gets you one Bicyclick set – that is one ball piece and one socket piece for connecting two bikes, or one piece for each of your handlebars to connect with other Bicyclick users.

The post Simple System Lets Bikes Use Other Bikes as Kickstands first appeared on Gajitz.

The world has a long-standing love affair with bicycles. Most of us grew up riding them around the neighborhood, and plenty of us still use them today for fun or exercise. But have you ever thought about how that fancy mountain bike you’re riding came by its current shape and function?

The very first bicycle precursor was the “dandy horse” above, invented in the early 19th century by a German baron. It was the first human-propelled two-wheeled vehicle and faced a number of complications in its short life, not the least of which being that pedestrians really didn’t want to share the streets with it.

Fast-forward a few years and the velocipede (“fast foot”) became the newest thing on two wheels. It had pedals attached directly to the front wheel and, because its hard metal or wooden wheels made it uncomfortable to ride outdoors, it became an indoor novelty with dedicated riding facilities much like modern skating rinks.

This simple animated history of the bicycle from Danish media firm Visual Artwork shows all of the wonderful (and baffling) iterations of the bicycle from its inception to today. There is, of course, a moment dedicated to the pennyfarthing (pictured at top), arguably the most ridiculous mode of two-wheeled transportation ever conceived.

The post Sweet Ride: A Visual Evolution of the Humble Bicycle first appeared on Gajitz.