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Roel Vandebeek's better bicycle stand

By squirrelbait - October 5, 2007

in Object Culture

The streets of NYC, at a glance, seem to provide a ubiquitous bike rack model, well, besides trees and poles. You know the one. It resembles a wet noodle with alternating U-turns. We can't help but think that Roel Vanderbeek's attractive and space-saving design would make a dandy trade-out for the old hat mainstay. The bent steel check-mark structure retains a slim profile, just large enough to cradle a front wheel and provide a spot to lock up. Vanderbeek's bike stand design is part of the Wolters' Street Furniture collection.

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anon

15 years ago

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http://bike-pgh.org/campaigns/three-rivers-bike-racks
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MikeM

15 years ago

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This piece is very aesthetically appealing, but it doesn't look very safe. Imagine a little kid or a bike rider falling onto it.
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Rich Fox

15 years ago

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This design allows very few effective locking strategies. For example, if the rider is relying on a micro u-lock through the rear wheel (within the rear triangle, effectively securing both frame and rear wheel) they're out of luck. Great shape, but very limited with respect to protection.
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Dymaxion

15 years ago

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Nice, but not actually useful for locking bikes to the way bike racks get used in the real world. That lock location is very restrictive in terms of the types of locks it will work with; it won't work at all for many locks and many types of frames. The way it holds the bike seems somewhat likely to damage the wheel if the bikes falls over. Standard bike racks also hold more bikes with less installation cost, etc.
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tr

15 years ago

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this design may fly in europe, where maybe bikes aren't stolen as much as in the US. but here, or in NYC? no way.

there is no way one could use a U-lock properly when locking up a bike with that bike rack. most will agree the proper way to lock a bike would be to put the U-lock through the frame and rear wheel (and the front, if you remove it and place it with the rear), and then lock it to the rack. from the pictures on the site, it seems that this rack is only meant for flimsy cable locks, which are passed through that small hole at the top of the rack. got a pair of cable cutters? got a free bike.
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Greg

15 years ago

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Definitely better than a lot of racks out there. I would like to have seen the slot at the top (which I'm assuming is for a lock) use the whole length of the post. This would make it easy to lock a wheel along with the frame for more security.
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