Innovative new folding bicycle design by Graham Powell

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The project focuses on proving the concept of an innovative new folding bicycle design that issignificantly different from existing products currently available in the marketplace.The design aims to provide a high quality riding experience, a very quick fold, a compact'suitcase' size folded machine and an attractive aesthetic. Typically most folding bicycles fitinto only one or two of the above four categories, which limits their broader appeal. Ifsuccessful it is anticipated that both existing and new market opportunities may becommercially exploited as a result.The folding design is the invention of Graham Powell, a design engineer with over 30 yearsexperience of product development and industrial collaborations. The project seeks to build upon an existing ‘proof of principles’ mock-up, further developing and proving the concept into a fully working prototype for thorough evaluation and testing. A key aim of the project is to prove that lateral and torsional stiffness, particularly within specific areas of the frame’s design, can be fully achieved. As such the proof of concept prototypes developed in this project will be tested to replicate bicycle industry safety standards along with real-life user testing.It is envisaged that upon successful completion of the proof of concept stage a patent will beprepared for filing. Following this, options for UK manufacturing will be explored.