A-bike

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Sinclair A-bike

A-bike is a light-weight folding bicycle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair in the United Kingdom and released on July 12, 2006. It claims to be the world's lightest, at just 5.5kg (12 pounds) and folds down to 67x30x16cm (26x12x6") — so small it can fit into a ruck sack. The A-Bike was designed by a team at Sinclair Research Ltd over 5 years, and was originally announced in 2004. Earlier design concepts included a scissor-folding style bike which was called the X-Bike.

Prototype

Before the A-Bike's introduction, folding bicycles, while popular and useful for many riders, have been essentially conventional bikes with hinging mechanisms and 16" wheels. Although they might fit in your car's trunk, or can be checked as baggage with the airlines, most still weigh as much as a lightweight conventional bike, so while the size was more convenient, they were not the breakthrough some makers claimed. Before the A-Bike, there have been a few other unique folding bike designs, such as the Strida, but even it weighs 22 pounds.

The 12-pound A-Bike weighs only half as much as other folding bikes, and folds to a much smaller size. Rather than replace the function of a conventional bike, Sinclair's hope is that the small size and light weight of the A-Bike may allow it to be used on commutes that are too far to be practical for walking, but too short to justify driving. For example, for people that live up to 5km from a train or subway station, it will be practical to ride the A-Bike to the station, then fold it up and carry it along.

The A-Bike retails for £200 and at the current (early) stage of marketing is primarily sold online. According to the A-bike website, it is also available to purchase in certain branches of the department stores, Selfridges. These branches include London, Manchester City Centre and Manchester, Trafford Centre

1 Inventors
2 Photos & Movie Links
3 See also
4 External links and references

[edit] Inventors

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A-bike Inventors

Sir Clive Marles Sinclair(born July 30, 1940 near Richmond upon Thames), is a well-known British entrepreneur and inventor of the world's first 'slim-line' electronic pocket calculator in 1972 (Sinclair Executive) and the ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, amongst many other things.

The ZX80 was the UK's first mass market home computer to be sold for under £100. Sinclair was fascinated by electronics and miniaturization from his teenage years. In 1961 he started his own company, Sinclair Radionics Ltd, after spending several years as assistant editor for Practical Wireless and Instrument Practice to raise funds.

In recent years Sinclair has become a keen poker player and appeared in the first three seasons of the Late Night Poker TV series. He won the first season final of the Celebrity Poker Club spin-off, defeating Keith Allen.

Alexander Joshef Kalogroulis is the Designer and Engineer of the A-bike. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London(BEng) and a Masters Degree in Industrial Design Engineering from The Royal College of Art in London. Self employed for 10 years as a Product Design Engineer and now Managing Director of Daka Research (UK) Ltd.

He uses SolidWorks for mechanical designs and his world popular designs include the Sea Doo range of sea scooters.