Is this the electric bicycle of the future?

Though its frame seems to be modeled on the side profile of a human on its hands & knees, one look at the nCycle’s Swiss-cheesed carbon fiber rimset tells us that this bicycle is anything but what it seems.


Conceived by Skyrill & Marin Myftiu, the nCycle represents the designers’ attempt to reinvent the electric bike. “The vast majority of current e-bikes are still 100+ year old designs,” explains the design team, ”converted somehow to electric, and you can tell it just by looking at them”.

Despite sharing some components with the conventional bicycle (pedals, cranks, saddle, fork…), this steed differentiates itself with a series of nifty integral developments. From the locking system within its bullhorn handlebars, to its modular side-panel construction, to the battery pack stored within its seat tube (or what passes for a seat tube), the nCycle represents an ambitious leap forward in ergonomic bike design.

The designers want the bike to fit the rider’s life, not to force the rider to adjust his behavior because of his bike. Besides the integrated handlebar locking system — and the fact that those bars will rotate nearly 180 degrees — there are two ergonomic features that demonstrate the convenience of the nCycle. The first is the pocket that drops down from the top tube, in which you can secure any laptop-sized cargo; then, there’s the folding function, which breaks the full-size bike down to an apartment-sized via a series of hinges.

The craft is just a concept for now. They’ve got a lot of kinks to solve before producing this bike for real (Core 77 does thorough job poking holes in the design), but it certainly is beautiful in its appearance.