According to the folks at Kolelinia, cyclists are spending twice as much money as they need to on a bike. The company has just designed a more compact alternative called the Halfbike that looks like someone stripped away all the comfy bits from a real bike, leaving us with the cyclists’ equivalent of a standing desk.
The Halfbike completely does away with a seat, and even handlebars, requiring riders to remain standing while they grasp a vertical shaft to help keep balanced. It’s certainly an unorthodox design for a bike, but what you lose in comfort, you gain in portability and small form factor. Squeezing this into a lift when you get to work would be no problem, and its more than light enough to easily carry up a flight of stairs.
Kolelinia is currently trying to raise $US80,000 in funding on Kickstarter to put the Halfbike into production, and you can secure your own with a donation of $US800. So it’s not quite as cheap as most would expect it to be, but you’re clearly paying a premium here for the coolness factor. [Halfbikes via designboom]