The Bike Stand To Rule Them All

The open circle, by Michael Pham, is both the most practical and elegant, and likely most economical. What a shame. The model they've chose can't be wood, can it? That'd be too dim even for this town. Don't see why the orginal model can't be backed-up with a ring on both sides. I've even seen a one-piece cast model, that should be stronger than a two-by-four.

If they were wood, thieves would need only a lighter or a tiny saw to steal bikes. Awesome.

It's not easy to really determine the scale here, but to me it looks like these stands are 10feet or more tall. Why would we want to clutter the visual landscape with tall boards like that?

if it's only for show, then yeah. otherwise... not quite. Agree with jamesmalloon about the open circle design - simple, elegant, practical (ie. it would actually work).

Sure the winning design looks great but I think "Art History Movement" by Jaeho Shin and Michael Pham's (#6 in the list) were designs better suited to actualy being used by people who need to lock their bike somewhere. I don't how Justin and Erica justified their design but it seems as though it has very limited space to attach a bike to and would appear to restrict the ways a bike could be locked to it. Do most people lock their bike to the ring part? What about odd things like baskets? kids' bikes, people who lock to centre post, etc. This design doesn't allow for a lot options. The wood post will make a great surface for ads. Perhaps that's why it was chosen.

But I can't see how most of the submissions - including the winning entry take into account the actual shape of a bicycle. The best shaped structure to lock a bike to would be shaped like a bike. That would be very practical but not as sexy as the winning one.

"To me it looks like these stands are 10feet or more tall. Why would we want to clutter the visual landscape with tall boards like that?"

So the city can cut another deal with Astral to sell advertising!!

<a href="http://www.toronto.ca/bug/combat_theft.htm";>The City's diagram</a> shows a U-lock around both the post and the ring. I remember being told that locking to the post was better than the ring... but I'm no cyclist, so I don't know from practicalities.

A puzzling choice that will clutter the streetscape.

A simpler modification on the current ones -- is that too difficult?

Street garbage/recycling bins, more designated bike lanes, bike racks (my Old Skool term)...when is the City ever going to get something right?

Compared to the rest of the designs it is probably the least interesting of them all. Yes, it will be tagged & postered and perhaps then it'll bring it some life.
...on second thought probably not.

from the illustration above it looks like they will have a wooden post
to lock your bike to. is that what we really need more wooden posts on our sidewalks? why not just use existing telephone poles.

I think the idea is great, the wood is most likely engineered so its probably equivalent to the strength of steel.

Zero, count them, ZERO plazas in my Scarborough neighbourhood have any bike racks, posts, or anything safe enough to lock a bike to. I don't care what it looks like. Please.... how do we get these outside of downtown???

these are horrible...

Shitty design. Those loops look pretty small, what's the scale on this thing? Maybe it's just me but I don't loop my chain through my tires so this seems like a pain in the ass.

All you folks yelling at the wood should really try out cutting through a 10x4 hardwood with their "tiny" or just shut the f* up. My saw would definitely have the word "Husqvarna" written on for that kind of plot.

Also, why do you assume that the internals of the woodplank thingie are NOT the good old ring-and-posts? I would manufacture 2 planks with the ring-and-post routed into it, sitck them on, bolt the thing together, cover bolts with wood inserts - here you go, covered the problem area, nice design, cheap solution to apply to all old things without having to dig holes and pour concrete.

I definitely agree on the open-ring-design and hope this guy gets the design sold to some manufacturer! For a new Installation, this thing rocks!

And i must say that the ring and the Woodplank looked to be the only designs that really seem to be designed with heart and brain and the real feasibilty in mind.

Tom

Nice. Most practical and intuitive of all the designs submitted. Most of the others look like tripping hazards or would just confused people.

This one takes up a minimal amount of space on the sidewalk, has cues of the new AGO with the Canadian-esque metal + wood modern combo.

This style of bike rack (circle with a pole through the middle) is the same style that we already have, EXCEPT looks like there is less points to lock to becasue its not a full circle and the center post is too think. Why are we spending money on this, whats wrong with what we got?

there are so many bikes in China, what bike stand do they use?

this is the most UN functional bike stand i have ever seen, worse than the one s in parkdale,

i will never lock a bike to this, EVER, (even at queen and mccaul) function is the key factor in design for something like this.

we need fewer lawyers and business men as politicians and more architects

GIANT failure by those involved

after a few freeze thaw cycles and salt (YES, did you forget we have winters) the wood will be UGLY and weak, get to know your materiality

and by the way I have cut through a 4x10 in less than 3 minutes with a sandvic handsaw. bike thieves will have a field day.