Backline is a Stylish Tech-Packed Bicycle

The Blackline. Technology on wheels.

The Oregon Manifest wants to get more people using bikes. Each year they hold a competition that challenges designers in five cities around the country to design a bicycle that would encourage people to ditch their cars and turn to pedal power. The entry for Portland this year has been designed and 3D printed in titanium. They call it The Blackline, and this stylish bike is full to the brim with technology, which makes LazyBoyTech absolutely LOVE it. Designed with the compact apartments of the Big Apple and the blustery winters of Chicago in mind, this stylized piece of equipment is all-year-round commuter pedal power.

And now let's hear about that Tech! The bike comes with haptic handlebars that can provide directions. It's companion app for the iWatch, allows the rider to be able to control the colors of the LED headlight along with the blinkers on the handlebars. There is also a GPS chip hidden somewhere on the bike, and this can help in the bikes recovery if it is ever stolen. Or it can be used to broadcast your location over the interwebs in the case of a bicycle rally, cross country trip with friends, or a celebrity visiting Comic Con. 

Method Bicycle, which was a key player in the bike's design, knows all about the problems of commuting through ice storms. Bike chains can freeze in the harsh winters of Chicago, so the Blackline comes fitted with a belt-drive which is devoid of any small components. It also features 26 inch tires that have been mounted on blunt rims and this ensures that driving on pothole ridden roads is not as uncomfortable. The frame is angled and doesn't have a top bar and this makes it easier for those riding it to get on and get off the seat when stuck in traffic. It is even said that the Blackline is the first bike that can be pedaled while wearing a little black dress.

The Blackline is the creation of a design company called Minimal; this is the same design studio that has worked with Microsoft on the Xbox 360 and the Kinect. It was the fist hand experience of Minimal in designing, crowd-sourcing, and making products of their own, that helped with the creation of the Blackline. "The winner gets their bike manufactured by Fuji and we didn't want to push so far that they would have to dumb it down to where it was unrecognizable if they produce it," says Chris Watson, lead program strategist at Minimal. "Yes there is some technology, but our studio has default manufacturing perspective and that ethos flows through the design."

One of the decisions that was critical, was keeping in-line with the tubular frame that has been welded on, instead of going after more advanced technologies. "As designers we made a decision to showcase [Method founder] Gary's craft and allowed him to be in charge of manufacturing the frame," says Watson. "If we were going to completely circumvent that, what's the point? Working with Method put a guardrail on our design that wouldn't normally be there, and guardrails are good."

While the focus has been on mass production and durability, the creators of Blackline have also kept with the refined sensibility of the founder of Minimal, Scott Wilson. He has previously worked as the creative director for Nike. While there is nothing flashy about the Blackline, each of the details on the bike has been given a great deal of thought; even the name. The Studio of Minimal is situated under the green and pink lines of the elevated Chicago Metro. They cover a lot of the city, however, they don't quite cover it all. The idea of the Blackline was that it would be a commuting option that would connect riders to the places where the train doesn't go. All of the colors are in use, so the team behind the bike chose the color black. Watson also jokes that of course, we are designers, so the bike had to be black.