Functionality and use of design
trioBike is a bike that can be used as a normal bicycle and the carrier as a pushchair. It improves lives of the modern families, who value the environment, exercise and economical mobility to either leisure activities or as a mean of daily transportation.
How did this design improve life?
trioBike is a carrier bike with three functions. It can be used as a carrier bike, an ordinary bike or you can dismantle the carrier and you have a lightweight pushchair holding two children. trioBike is user friendly and you will have no need for tools doing any of the transformations.
The innovative design offers a number of solutions for the modern family living in an urban environment. The carrier bike can be used for transporting infants as well as children up to app. age 8-10. Maximum weight in the carrier is 80 kilos. trioBike addresses parents who are environmentally aware and prefer riding a bike to the pollution of car traffic. The carrier bike motivates and facilitates healthy exercising on a regular basis.
In the cities it can be extremely difficult to park a car, so far it is easier finding room for a carrier bike, which makes trioBike a convenient and economical way of transporting children for leisure activities or on a daily basis.
The family has the advantage of multi functionality on weekends, where you in a comfortable and healthy manner can transport yourself and your children to a recreational area. Park the bike and transform the carrier into a pushchair in 45 seconds. After a walk in the area you easily assemble the carrier bike, and you will be back on the road riding your trioBike within a minute.
On busy workdays trioBike is an effective means for transporting your children in the city and improving your physical well-being from the exercise. Compared to other carrier bikes the ride is more pleasant, as you can leave the carrier by the childcare center and continue on a traditional bike. trioBike offers even more flexibility and mobility if both parents ride a trioBike, as it opens the possibility for one parent to drop off the children and the other to pick them up. The cost of a trioBike will be similar to other carrier bikes, but you will not have to buy a separate pushchair or an ordinary bike, and in that respect it becomes an affordable product.
trioBike requires no more maintenance than an ordinary bike. It is a very durable and the lightest carrier bike available, due to the aluminium frame and the carrier made out of an impact proof compound material.
To ensure the quality and standard of the product trioBike is developed in cooperation with the Danish Consumer Agency. This guaranties that all materials are safe, fireproof and without any PVC or other damaging chemical’s for the children. Before being introduced on the market trioBike will be go through the test: DS.EN:1888. trioBike is the first carrier bike that will go trough this test.
Drawbacks of life improvement
This product will be introduced on the Danish market in August 2005, and in the near future it will be promoted in Holland, Northern Europe and the USA. Due to the price, the product it is not suitable for undeveloped countries, where the number of individual users would be low. The carries bike takes up more room than an ordinary bike, both on the roads and when parked. This could cause annoyances to the owner of trioBike as well as others, especially when the number of trioBike users increase over time.
Research and need
The modern family living in urban environment often do not have the need for a car due to well-functioning public transportation. It is however a hassle to commute with children at peak hours in crowded trains and busses. The concept developed when analyzing the alternatives. The carrier bikes on the market at the moment, only solve some of the mentioned problems, and therefore leave much to be desired. The need for a more functional and flexible carrier bike was obvious. This observation was the starting point for the trioBike project. A long the way a lot of research was done, both studying the existing carrier bikes and doing technical research.
A thoroughly user study was done to determine the needs and demands of the user group. Meetings were arranged with focus groups consisting of parents, and interviews were done with both dealers and producers of similar products.
Studies have been made to learn from the political, environmental and public transportation situation in larger cities in northern EU particularly in Germany, Holland, Belgium and Scandinavia. The conclusion of this extensive research was that there is “room” for the Triobike and some suggestions even point to “a lot of room”. Research was a big part of doing the design. It has been a rather difficult task to solve the technical problems, due to the high expectations to the functionality. It was a demand to solve the design problems, and in the end have a carrier bike, that can be dismantled easily and used as an ordinary bike and a comfortable pushchair. It was a demand that the emotional design went hand in hand with a Functional design, and the trioBike solves this problem.
It was a demand that the bike design, would not make a spectator think, that something is missing, hence making it a more desirable product for both parents.
It was a demand that the ending retail price was affordable for almost all parents in the EU. In our opinion trioBike successfully meets these demands, and we are excited to introduce it to potential users.
Designed by
Lars Pedersen - Denmark
