Bike commuting has been on the rise for years now, and we’ve been lucky enough to see some really great ebike concepts that not only get you where you’re going – they perform other feats of technology as well. The Gi FlyBike is a stylish little foldable bike that integrates with your phone to add all kinds of cool features to your commute.

Weighing in at just 37 pounds, the FlyBike is easier to lug around than some other similar bikes. It helps that it folds handily in half, and the folding mechanism lets you fold the bike or open it up in one smooth movement. Once folded, you can wheel it around behind you like a rolling suitcase.

The extra cool features of the FlyBike come with its smartphone integration. The app shows full navigation while you’re pedaling along, even highlighting the routes that are best for biking. The app will also automatically lock the bike when you wander at least 15 feet away from it. If you need to loan out your bike to a friend, you can send them a special unlock code that will allow them temporary use your FlyBike.

The bike charges your phone as you’re traveling, so there’s no need to worry that all that navigation assistance will leave you with a dead battery later in the day. The FlyBike’s integrated battery also gives you a boost when you need it, offering three levels of assistance for up to 40 miles of pedal-free travel. All of the bike’s electronic bits, including its integrated lights, are charged from a single charge point, a feature that the inventors say is unique to the FlyBike.

If you’re serious about biking to work and want all of the conveniences of a state-of-the-art folding ebike, it’ll cost you. The FlyBike, when it is eventually offered for retail purchase, will run $3,590 – or about the cost of a small used car. But obviously, the environmental and space-saving advantages of the bike will appeal to a lot of folks who otherwise would have to depend solely on public transport or sweat-inducing conventional bikes to get from one place to the next.

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Electric bikes are hardly news anymore, but some designs stand out as truly ahead of the pack. The Gi Bike has changed the e-bike game with a bike that is lightweight, folds easily, and includes enviable connectivity and safety features.

The Gi Bike is the “perfect city bike,” according to the company behind it. They integrated all of the features that they wanted to see in a bike to create a mode of transport that is not only safe and speedy, but stylish as well.

Weighing in at just over 37 pounds including the LiFePo4 battery, the Gi is one of the lightest e-bikes to be introduced to the public. It can ride for more than 40 miles on a single charge, making it ideal not only for commuting, but for those long leisurely rides as well. A smart anti-theft lock is integrated in the front and rear wheels, locking the bike and making it unusable when the owner (and his/her smartphone) moves more than 10 feet away.

Toothed carbon drive belts mean fewer breakdowns and a safer ride. Built-in smart LEDs on the front and rear wheels turn on when it starts to get dark, making the Gi even safer. The Gi app connects you to friends, giving it a social networking personality. Friends can request the use of your bike and you can respond instantly.

An integrated USB port and smartphone mount let you plug in your phone to help you navigate or communicate. And when you get to your destination, a single motion folds the bike in less than three seconds. If you aren’t interested in the electronic part of the bike, the company has also designed a pedal-only version. The prices for both versions are, at publication time, still to be announced.

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The classic rickshaw design hasn’t changed in centuries – it’s simple, effective, and no-nonsense. But designer Kenneth Cobonpue has come up with a more modern design for contemporary urban travelers – and it’s seriously beautiful.

The Eclipse is as low-tech as the traditional rickshaw: the driver pedals a bike while the passenger sits in comfort. They’ve been used in Asia forever, but they have recently begun to show up in American cities as a completely green form of city transport – and they aren’t just used for the novelty factor.

Made of lightweight aluminum and polyethylene, the Eclipse is easy on the driver. The passenger has it easy, too – the passenger compartment features soft seats, cup holders, an iPhone charger and a cover that can close.

Cobonpue realizes that it will take some time for commuters to accept alternative forms of transportation. His hope, though, is that vehicles like the Eclipse will help convince urban travelers that environmentally-friendly vehicles are the wave of the future.

(via: FastCo)

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The idea of communal or shared cars has been growing in popularity recently, particularly as cities become more congested and it becomes more expensive to own a car. Designer Yuhan Zhang‘s concept takes its cues from bees, insects which are known especially for their predisposition to work together.

Zhang branded the BeeHive concept with the Volvo name. The idea involves a fleet of city-owned or communal-owned vehicles which can be checked out by people who need a car to perform certain tasks like moving objects or traveling long distances. People who simply need to get themselves from one point to another take one of the other modes of transport in the system: a bus, train, or their own feet.

In the center of the BeeHive, appropriate vehicles are dispatched automatically. There isn’t much information about how the designer envisions the system working, but we’d like to think that you’d tell the system what kind of task you need to perform and, after answering a few key questions, you’d get a vehicle to check out for a day or two.

The conceptual BeeHive vehicles don’t feature a windshield that passengers can see out of because the vehicles are meant to be autonomous, self-driving cars. This probably won’t become anywhere near reality anytime soon, but Zhang understands that – the project was supposed to be a concept detailing what urban life would be like in the year 2030.

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Foldable bikes are not known as super-easy to operate, either on the road or when folding and unfolding – but this one aims to change that perception. Space from designer Simon Hukaya is an urban folding bike that features wheels set slightly further apart than most similar bikes and a simple one-handed folding/unfolding mechanism.

As most urban bikers know, taking your bike in the morning usually means you’re stuck taking your bike home in the evening, even if it rains or you end up at a bar that’s miles away from home. A folding bike is supposed to solve those problems by letting you take your bike on a train or in a cab, but most of them are not designed for agility and they’re incredibly fiddly to fold and unfold.

The Space features 20-inch wheels, up to three sizes larger than typical folding bikes. These make the bike more stable to ride and more agile in an urban setting. The folding/unfolding mechanism consists of a single button which, when pressed, folds the frame in half on a central pivoting point and allows the two wheels to come together. The rider can then pull it along behind him by the handlebars or carry it.

So far, the Space is just a concept and there are no details on if it will be manufactured for commercial purposes. With its functional but adaptable styling it would definitely be a hit with the office bicyclist set.

The post Gimme Some Space: Urban Bike Folds With Just a Touch first appeared on Gajitz.