With its Pong bike of the mid ’90s and the more recent Jackknife folding bike, Cannondale has long been king of the concept bike. But it looks like a small design firm, Jruiter Studio, in Grand Rapids, Mich., may grab that crown temporarily with its new rig, an urban bike that’s lean, pared-down, chain-less, and includes — brake-less purists cover your eyes — hydraulic stoppers.
If the Shriners want bikes in their parade, this pint-size pedaler is just the right size. But way cooler. Made as part of a design exercise, the “hobby horse” bike was inspired by the “simplicity” of city bicycling and made for “an inner city environment with minimal space.” Those quotes come from a short description on the Jruiter site. It continues: “Bicycling at this level can be more about fashion and culture than speed and performance.”
So you may be guessing this “fashion” angle is why the studio included a suspension fork. But a fork is actually important on this pocket-size bike because the rider is way over the front bars at all times. That’s a dangerous position to be in when anything more than a small pothole might jettison the pilot.
Jruiter said the project focused on the rethinking of what a frame means. Getting rid of basic key components and creating a new type of compact bicycle were other goals.
