Hello! Welcome to my first post here. When I told Henrique that I was going to this event, he suggested I write a post for the site and share some of what I had experienced.  So here it is….

I had the pleasure of going to Friedrichshafen this year to attend three days of the Eurobike international bicycle trade show.  It was absolutely mind-boggling the size of this thing.  Tens of thousands of bikes in about 12 football field sized exhibition halls.  It took me three days of seven hours per day to see every booth, and I’m sure I missed a lot of what the show had to offer.  The big story this time was the rise of electric bikes.  There were two different test tracks where you could try any of the models from several dozen manufacturers.  This part of the industry is huge, and growing.  Fixed gear bikes are also all the rage, and everyone seems to have one.  There were a few notable bikes and accessories that I thought would be appropriate for Letsevo, so check out the pictures (and don’t forget to read the descriptions below the pictures) in the gallery to get a feel of where we’ve gotten to in this crazy cycling world.

[View with PicLens]

Derek from Lahr Cycles posted the development photos on his homemade bike frame at the ride monkey forums. It’s really interesting to see that you don’t need much to create a working model, from here, it can only get better. Way to go Derek. Check the finished model at the forum thread.

My favorite design blog Core77 just put up their new 1-HOUR Design Challenge: Design a laser-cut grip tape inlay for a Longboard. They teamed up with “Laser Cutting for the masses” company Ponoko and Bustin Boards and will be receiving entries until January 28. The best 3 designs will be made and sent to their respective creators. Too bad the Letsevo skateboards aren’t ready yet, this is totally something we would support! Anyway, great initiative! On your marks! go!

If you just can’t wait for the next generation of city planers, start building the world as you would like it to be. Letsevo has put a CAD BMX Ramp in google earth Location: Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Download the file, open it up in google earth, get inspired and give your hood something to be proud of…drop us a comment to share your creations.

If it looks as awesome as the amazingly crafted C-Thru Bike from BME, I am afraid it does.

The C-thru road frame is made from solid carbon rods carefully bonded together into its geometry. BME is the effort of the Slovakian engineer Brano Meres who has been experimenting among other things, with bamboo/carbon fiber constructions.

Now what would happen if we added a little bit of biology’s intelligence to Brano Meres’ construction?
Lets say, some adaptive design strategies regarding the spacing and dimension of the carbon rods….what do you think?

Nature puts material only where its needed… so there is a variation in the density of structures, always. Are the forces equal along the top tube of a Road Bike? If not…There could be some generative design patterns being applied to the construction defining its shape in relationship to the forces acting upon it…

Steffen R? What do you think? Ansys meets Generative Components meets Bike frame?

Give it up for Brano Meres. Amazing work, congratulations!

It’s official, Fibra Design Sustentável and Lets-Evo start a virtual development blog for the development of a sustainable skateboard. The goal of the platform is to shorten the innovation cycle through at dynamic open environment where Designers, Artists, Engineers, Producers and users interact in order to build a better product.

Project Page

Remember when mom used to say, kid! How many times do I have to tell you not to play with fire!!! yeahh I remember. And in Brazil, moms also say that kids that play with fire pee in bed much more than normal kids. I never met the mom of this rocket guy but I am sure he didn´t listen to her.

Sorry to all the moms out there but wouldn’t it be nice to build an opensource rocket bike? or at least learn How to. I don´t know a thing about rockets but I know a lot about bikes, I also know some crazy friends (the Alltrack Bicycles Crew) that would love to ride this thing. The test track would be at Ipanema Beach, at a sunday afternoon when the road is open for pedestrians. But we would need to find this guy to share his knowledge, we would also need ideas for potencial sponsors (administrators);we would need a camera for documentation (film makers, journalists); a music band for the video soundtrack and DJ for the release party. Ok, before the party, we must build this bike.

Unfortunately I wouldn´t be able to build a rocket bike like this myself (at least not without giving up my job as a designer to study a lot about rockets) but I am sure there are many out there that could help me. In order to build this things with this complexity we should start thinking of a platform that would enpower different people to work in the same project, find a way to share knowledge in real time, sharing 3D files, spreadsheets, drawings etc., people working non-centralized in small subjects of the problem, sharing experiences to achieve one goal. In a realtime product development platform, this could happen not just with rocket bikes, but with any complex product. Its about communicating to evolute, to go further. So the list of things we need is definitely far from being complete but I think one thing is certain, we need to collaborate to build the products of our future. Peace.

Link to Video

Last week I got the chance to go to Friedrichshafen in south of Germany for the Eurobike 2006. As promissed before I have put a website together with all the pictures I made there. It was very nice event with a lot important companies, nice dirt jump and bmx freestlyle action and a very nice atmosphere between business madness, exotic bikes and german beer. During my stay there I got the chance to chat with a lot of people that are doing some really interesting products and also breathe some of the action going on outside at the Dirt track and the Bmx Flatland floor.