It’s no secret that we love our bikes around here. Whether it’s for our commute or for exercise, cycling is a way of life. But not just any bike will do! We like our bikes to combine form and function, and we’ve now found our new dream ride: The Merge.
The Merge started as just a good idea submitted to Oregon Manifest‘s design contest. The product development competition was a challenge to create an urban utility bike that would convince more people to stop driving and start cycling. Each ride had to have some city essentials — like a place to carry your laptop, safety lights in both the front and back of the bike to deal with pedaling past dark in traffic-laden streets, a fender for saving your work outfit from getting splattered with mud on rainy mornings and an anti-theft system to fend off urbanites looking to “liberate” your bike.
This bike sports all the essentials and more. The frame acts as a sort of storage system for EVERYTHING. The fender, lights and lock all tuck away into the frame, as does that rack for your laptop bag. Not only that, but your pedal power will create energy for your lights as well as the integrated USB charging port in case you forgot to juice up your phone last night. There’s even some room in that frame to keep a few grocery bags in case you need to pick up some goods on the way home.
The Merge was created by an agency called Pensa in a collaboration with Horse Cycles inspired by the perfect picture of commuting bike culture: NYC, thanks to its oft-ignored-by-cars bike lanes, its heavy traffic, the fact that many city dwellers have to carrying their rides up the stairs of their walk-up apts. On top of that, the creators wanted the bike to be an around town accessory while remaining low profile enough so it doesn’t catch everyone’s eye much while it’s chained up on the sidewalk.
Anything that puts fewer cars on the roads while also charging our iPhones is a product we want to see on the streets in all major cities stat. And while The Merge didn’t win the design competition, we’re hoping that some bike manufacturer will see this magic mobile and get this baby into production for 2015… we just hope that we can afford whatever they decide to price it at. May we suggest a Kickstarter project, Pensa?
Dibs on Early Bird spots!
What do you think about The Merge? Tell us what company you can see producing it in the comments below!
(h/t Wired)
