Scott drops the japanese bike tree bomb and asks, would it work over here?

Not sure if you’ve seen this yet, just came across it on the Homepage.
Pretty sweet, but would it fly state side?

14 Responses to “All I need is this bike tree… and this lamp….”

1. patrick Says:
   November 5th, 2009 at 2:59 pm

   That is downright silly. the beauty of a bicycle is its simplicity; parking shouldnt be complicated, over techd’, and expensive. give us more racks and maybe rain cover that would be swell. this mess its a fine example of “gilding the lilly”..

2. judi Says:
   November 5th, 2009 at 3:38 pm

   everyone rides in japan. you hardly see anyone ride in the states cuz we’re fat ass usa. it isn’t even needed in the states.

3. singletrack maestro Says:
   November 5th, 2009 at 7:43 pm

   If you ever saw Amsterdam train depo . Tens of thousands of sweet commuters . You could put your stash in the storage tree . Go get stoned to the b Jesus , come back and type your number in ( maybe ), then wait , then ride home and get stoned .!

4. Gnome Says:
   November 5th, 2009 at 8:36 pm

   the maestro is on to something.

5. hotspot shield Says:
   November 5th, 2009 at 10:40 pm

   Why doesn’t baking soda freeze?

6. dave Says:
   November 6th, 2009 at 12:24 am

   Those jaws look like taco salad waiting to happen. Probably okay for some heavy-assed pig of a city bike, but you wouldn’t see me trusting a real bike to that thing.

7. Rotten Says:
   November 6th, 2009 at 5:38 am

   One huge problem is vandalism of bikes in racks. This would definitely take care of that. Then you wouldn’t have to commute on a $15 yard sale bike. This would be good for big college towns like State College, Pa. No more drunks smashing wheels of bikes in racks.

8. art Says:
   November 6th, 2009 at 5:59 am

   Patrick, The problem with just “more racks” is that they take up a lot of space, which in urban areas gets expensive fast. By racking the bikes vertically underground, the equipment cost can be more than offset by the smaller footprint. Also, the linked article used the phrase “fiendishly complicated”, but this whole system is basically a 20 year old mainframe tape library with bigger motors.

9. Mikey Says:
   November 6th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

   hotspot— Baking soda IS frozen. It’s precipitated sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3).

   rotten— Yes. I had my rear wheel stomped on while my bike was racked one time.

   art— You’re right, I sold electric tidbits for ASRS (automated storage and retrieval) systems. Slip rings and conductor bar. Oddly, two major global players are in Salt Lake City. They have standard product that can handle loaded pallets, even cars, and they have done insanely high-SKU (unique item) systems like the library at the University of Utah. They could fire up their CAD and whip out a drawing for a bike locker in half a day.

   In downtown Seattle, they have this “biketown” or something like that, you buy a subscription and use their indoor, three-high rack. There are employees there all the time and cameras, you could safely rack a decent bike there. Of course, that’s where I met the white rasta dude who said clipless pedals were a conspiracy by billion-dollar pedal companies and thay the best way to ride is to drag your inside birkenstock in the turns.

10. YuriB Says:
    November 6th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    That is downright sweet!!!

11. Erik Ryberg Says:
    November 7th, 2009 at 6:52 pm

    Here is a low-tech version of the same thing in Bogota, Colombia that is much simpler. You walk in, put your bike on a hook, and it gets hoisted up.

    http://www.tucsonbikelawyer.com/bike-parking-in-bogota/

    No CAD, baking soda, or fiendishly complicated thingabobs required.

    EBR

12. daylight spectrum lamp Says:
    January 5th, 2010 at 2:11 pm

    Wow! Thanks for the great post. I have been meaning to write something similar on my blog. Looks like you got there first. Cheers.

13. Infovoyeur Says:
    February 3rd, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    You are rite about theft in larger cities. The ONLEY two time’s I EVER had a problem parking, was (1) Chicago (USA) suburb maul had to attach to a Wal-Mart shoping kart, and (2) Chicago 5-***** luxxurie hotel whair a conference was being held, dragon ladi said “No Parking, nobody ever comes here on a bicycle” and etc. of coarse I said, “Well whom am I…” and attached it to the employeees’ railing. Now I oan a Folding bicycle which solves 51% of the problem’s. KEEP ON WHEALING.

    Chester Kartoffelkopfe, Correlator, POTATO CENTRAL INTERNATIONAL
    [S.E. Wisconsin U.S.A.]

14. dave Says:
    February 3rd, 2010 at 2:11 pm

    I ride my bike where I ride my bike. If I can’t lock it, it goes where I go.