No way! Did someone say heated bike wheels?

For the last unit of Design and Engineering, we decided to focus on the power of wheels and pulleys. We took a deeper look into how wheels can change the way transportation works around the world, and how wheels can lead to future designs and models. We looked into bikes and the parts that make up a bike. To get a closer look we visited Working Bikes on the southwest side of Chicago. We were able to disassemble some bikes that would later be sent to Jordan! This goes to show how important bikes are not only in cities in the states, but around the world. We also visited Earth Riders which was a small bike shop on the north side of Chicago where we got to try out some e-bikes and see how those worked. For our AP, we were asked to look into a persona of someone who had to ride their bikes to school and get a better idea of their commute. My partner and I got Karen who lives in Banff, Canada. From there we were able to assemble a bike for them and include parts of the bike that could be used to their benefit. Read more of my blogpost to learn about the ending result of our bike design and model!

Persona:

Karen
Age: 14
Distance from school: 3 miles
Situation: Banff is a beautiful place but Karen has to bike along large winding roads to get to school, meaning they have to watch out for cars and trucks speeding by. Additionally, it gets very cold and snowy or icy during the winter months, leading to a dangerous ride, especially when carrying their school books. Luckily they can keep their bike inside, but space is very limited in their garage.

Need

As you can see from our persona description, Karen's route isn't the fastest or the most efficient. We as designer's want to make sure that our designs are not only efficient, but work to make Karen's ride safer. For that reason, when we started the sketching process, we made sure to embolden those struggles they face on a daily basis. Banff's climate is pretty snowy and icy, so we can only imagine Karen going through those windy roads. Also, storing the bike is a huge thing for a biker, especially a child. We wanted our design to include a compact way for Karen to store their bike almost anywhere, and not just in their garage!

Benefit

We thought about ways that can prevent Karen's bike from slipping on the icy roads, and so we thought, how about heated wheels? Essentially, these wheels would be heated as Karen bikes around transferring kinetic energy to chemical energy to heat up the path ahead of them. As Karen cycles through, the ice or snow would melt, preventing Karen's bike from slipping and possibly harming them. My partner and I grew up in Chicago, a city where it could get pretty cold, icy, and snowy. We also know that not only are the streets bad, but they are also crowded with buses, trucks, cars, etc. We don't want a fourteen year old child to ever get harmed on their way to school, especially when they are riding a bike. We decided to protect Karen, if they ever do experience a bike crash, by including a "trailer" design for their upper body. The trailer would be covering them from the snow and protect them with airbags included on the sides are rear of the bike incase of an accident. Now many people do say that airbags are dangerous and could possibly harm the person rather than protecting them, but we'd rather have airbags and possibly end up saving someone's life than harming it. Lastly, we have made the bike collapsable by including clips on the bike where Karen can easily snap them and put the parts of the bike inside of the trailer frame not only for compactness, but for convenience as well!

Reason to believe

Throughout this unit we truly were able to get a better understanding of not only the anatomy of bikes, but why benefits are so beneficial. We are aware that around the world, not everyone has access to a car. We are also aware that the burning of these fossil fuels are having a bad effect on our environment, and the risk that we are putting our climate through when riding in a car, bus, or truck. We need to make bikes more convenient and in order for that to happen, we need to change the way these bikes are built. We as designers and engineers need make sure that the bikes that people are using are accommodating people's needs. By taking a look at Karen's struggles, we were able to identify the main problems and curate something that can change their future of biking. We need to make that change for each person in this world in order to lead our planet to a better, safer future!

Conclusion

In conclusion, this action project reflected what the possibilities of bikes can lead to. Biking can make a global impact that can put people in need in the position of a better future. By not only designing this bike, but actually constructing it, it got me thinking more about what engineers should do to make bikes more efficient. In order to change the way that people think about public transportation, engineers need to make their bike designs more convenient for everyone. There is a way to change people's mindsets about changing from cars to bikes, but it's all about accommodation!