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The Grasshopper: It Folds Up, It Recharges, It’s Designed in SolidWorks *Update!*

by Josh on December 8, 2008 · View Comments

Ya know the speeder bikes in Stars Wars you always dreamed of riding on? Well, this bike is the next best thing for the moment. Storm Trooper, neat sound effects and wooded terrain sold separately.

The Grasshopper, designed by David Gonçalves, is a collapsible, self-charging, energy-conserving joy-ride that can trasnform into a trolley or stationary bike. It won the Merit prize in the 2008 12th International Bicycle Design Competition and it just so happens that it was designed in SolidWorks.

Pedal Power
The bicycle uses a battery that is recharges through the braking system or when you’re in the mood for biking stationary in your cubicle. For urban transportation, this compact bike becomes a very efficient way to get around. It’s also just screaming accessorize me with saddlebags a stickers, ya think? Would you ride one to work?

*Update!*
I’ve heard from David regarding some of his designs:

…the Grasshoper was fully modeled in Solidworks. The Scarab was developed in Solidworks, for the mechanic movements to be correct, but then I did the final styling in Alias. The Phoenix was modeled completely in Alias. The renderings that are now available on the web were all made using Bunkspeed Hypershot, apart from some exceptions that were rendered either in Maxwell, Imagestudio or even Solidworks (in the case of some technical renders of the Grasshopper).

Thanks David!

David Gonçalves (coroflot, Behance)







Via Yanko Design

Tagged as: bicycles, David Gonçalves, trasportation

  • Robin
    How much is this?
  • The Curved rear section is quite clever, as it allows the seat height adjustment to also seat a taller rider further back. It really is more of a Uni-cycle with a front balancing out rigger.
  • Interesting.

    The gear ratio/sprocket sizes appear to be reversed. The drive output gear is larger than the driven gear on the rear wheel.

    Devon
    http://www.3-ddesignsolutions.com
  • ahhh, yeah, i see it now, I was thinking the disc brake was the gear, but yeah, that would need to be reversed.

    David, looks like you have a few consultants will to help out :)
  • JeffMirisola
    That seat looks a bit dangerous....
  • Dale Dunn
    The split saddle is intended to preserve blood flow in the nether region. That one does look as though it could use some more padding though.

    It's a neat concept, but the negative rake angle on the fork would make it unstable going forward.
  • Looking at it, it seems the angle could be adjusted back to improve the design and avoid endo-concrete-face. may actually look even sleeker. If the CG was lower toward the back it may help a bit too.
  • Good catch, Dale.

    Another example of a poor design that looks good in a Render.

    Devon
    http://www.3-ddesignsolutions.com
  • BRS
    I think a slight curve to the front would make it look more appealing, as long as it isn't as rounded as the back. but it has a stiff look to the front. Nothing a few minor changes to the front couldn't fix. Other than that I would ride it..
  • Very nice to have if you only need get around for relatively short distances around town, maybe 5 or 6 miles maximum on way. Overall, I find the look of the bike to be appealing to me with the curved back end. The front is a little chunky, I think it would have been nicer if it had a curve like the back end.

    The stationary conversion is cool. Kind of makes the bike into a "Leatherman" multi-bike.
  • OOO, a leatherman bike. One could real creative with all the possibilities.
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