A few months back an exciting new project landed in our lap from our longtime collaborators at Trek. The task was to redesign the consumer interface of their popular Project One custom bike configuration tool. At some point in the design process a few months ago I found myself dreaming about my latest project, as I commonly do. In this dream I used Project One to create bike designs that looked like various species of birds. When I woke up I realized what a fantastic idea this was.

I’m happy to announce that today with Trek, the team here at Hanson Dodge Creative has launched the latest incarnation of Project One. To commemorate the launch I followed my subconscious advice and actually styled several bikes as birds. Click on any of the images in this post to see a full-sized version.

The bikes below have been designed using just the configurator and haven’t been adjusted in any image editing software - a testament to the amount of creative control the custom program affords. You can even change colors on the smallest of details like bar tape, cable housings and in some cases even brake hood colors. The amount of customization Trek is offering to their customers sets a high bar for online product configurations.

So enjoy. And if you feel motivated, flutter on over to Trek’s Project One configurator and make your own bike as a bird. If you’re really motivated, post your creation to Flickr and add a link to the comments for this post.

Wild Parrot

Flamingo

Yellow Finch

Woodpecker

Raven

Blue Jay

Turkey Vulture

Rooster

Cardinal

Oriole

All of the source birdy photos can be found on Flickr and are flagged as remixable by the creative commons license.

Get your avian photo fix here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nosha/2572923294/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davideg/1513641666/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/320009619/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindenbaum/2525362430/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jettyboy/855569038/
http://flickr.com/photos/ricmcarthur/148238137/
http://flickr.com/photos/simondbarnes/360572546/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/revilla/538922356/
http://flickr.com/photos/lindenbaum/2220526073/
http://flickr.com/photos/kubina/467715401/

A half-block from our studio there is a bridge that I walk under almost every day. Well, actually using the word bridge is selling it short, it’s actually an overpass for a section of freeway that cuts right through the heart of Milwaukee. The space is somewhat typical of what happens in urban areas under overpasses - it’s used as a parking lot, left feral or otherwise ignored. Despite its present undeveloped state, this location has a few things going for it. It’s across the street from the Milwaukee Public Market, it abuts Milwaukee’s River Walk pedestrian thoroughfare and is right next door to a public launch for kayakers, canoeists and rowers who use the Milwaukee River. Here in the heart of the city, in an otherwise unused space and surrounded by such great attractions, seems like the perfect place to create an urban park focused on active recreation.

Other municipalities have done this with great success already. Portland, Oregon has the Burnside Skatepark, located under the Burnside Bridge. Built originally without permission from the city, this skatepark is now officially supported by the city and creates a public recreation area in a dense urban area that’s sheltered from the weather due to it’s location under such a large structure.

A Hanson Dodge Creative colleague of mine sent me a link to the Colonnade Mountain Bike Park in Seattle, Washington. I can’t describe this place it’s so insanely inventive. It’s truly a new model of how urban “in-between” spaces can be dramatically re-imagined and converted from grafitti-strewn dirt patches into urban playgrounds. The park features mountain bike trails and obstacles, at various ability levels, in an unbelievably small footprint under a brige.

I walk by that mean space every day on my way to work and I imagine opportunity for joy in the heart of the city. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t become just another parking lot.

I love the idea of putting a bicycle on the market that is useful, trendy and twice as cheap to produce — so buying the product for a regular price leaves means enough to donate one to someone who cannot afford one. This company’s whole design philosophy is pretty cool.

Inspired by the concept of flat packing and home assembly made popular by companies like IKEA we finally made a bike out of two wooden plates. Hence its name: The Sandwich Bike. The absence of welding joints makes the frame very easy to produce and [...] materials used can vary according to the client’s demand. This way the bike can be kept simple and cheap, or aesthetically and structurally supreme and therefore reasonably expensive. Just like an IKEA product the bike will be delivered in a flat cardboard box and can be assembled at home with a single tool…

For more information, visit the designer’s website: Bleijh.

(via Treehugger)

I recently learned of Parkour (sometimes called “Freerunning”) - a growing popular phenomenon where people move through their environment by jumping, rolling, vaulting, running up walls and numerous other manuveurs. Research on americanparkour.com explained the sport as this:

Parkour is the art of moving through your environment using only your body and the surroundings to propel yourself. It can include running, jumping, climbing, even crawling, if that is the most suitable movement for the situation. Parkour could be grasped by imagining a race through an obstacle course, the goal is to overcome obstacles quickly and efficiently, without using extraneous movement. Apply this line of thought to an urban environment, or even a run through the woods, and you’re on the right path. Because individual movements could vary so greatly by the situation, it is better to consider Parkour as defined by the intention instead of the movements themselves. If the intention is to get somewhere using the most effective movements with the least loss of momentum, then it could probably be considered Parkour.

From the reading I’ve done it seems to be a highly disciplined activity requiring much strength and dedication to maintain safety and to continuously improve. Turn down your speakers a bit and watch this video:

I first became aware of eco-running this past spring when my urban neighborhood, Riverwest, thawed out, and a winter’s worth of litter emerged from the melting gray snow banks. Every spring the neighborhood has to deal with the garbage that the thousands of people passing through insist on leaving behind. This year, however, we were introduced to a new, simple and ingenious approach to the clean up, courtesy of local resident and endurance runner, Sam Huber – aka The Eco-Runner.

Sam incorporates scooping up litter into his running regimen and is on a mission to convert people to serving their environment by simply picking up the trash in their path. Sam’s grassroots project is getting national attention and attracting new eco-runners (or in my case, eco-walkers) every day.

Visit Eco-Runner to follow Sam’s progress and learn more about how to green your exercise routine.

I ran across this post from James Thomas of the Bicycle Design blog last night. It shows a prototype Trek Stop (think truck stop) that’s currently located outside a bike shop in Madison, WI. Think of the Trek Stop as a vending machine merged with a mechanic’s bike stand wrapped in the styling of a gas station awning. The vending machine sells all of the basics you may need while out and about on your next ride including tubes, patch kits, water bottles, etc. I could see these units being a success in areas where bikes shops aren’t currently found - in dense urban areas, near parks and trails that handle a lot of cycling traffic, or near mass transit hubs. Overall I think it’s a great concept whose time may appropriate with the cost of gasoline on the rise and the renewed interest in bikes as viable commuting options.

Have you decorated your bike tree and cookies yet? Sung your bike carols? Anxiously waited for the Bike Month peloton to land on your rooftop? I hope so.

With gas prices climbing and environmental concerns increasing, this is a particularly good year to celebrate National Bicycle Month. Started in 1956, National Bike Month is still going strong and growing.

To celebrate, take a minute (well, two) to watch this great little video about one man’s bike commute.

Mat’s Commute from Mat Barlow on Vimeo.

NEW NATIONAL LEGISLATION
Complete Streets Bill Now in House and Senate
(05.05.08) Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA) took an important step on Thursday, May 1 for safer, better designed streets yesterday by introducing the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2008 (HR 5951) into the U.S. House. Click here to read more.

UPCOMING EVENTS
May 16: Bike to Work Day
Not a centralized national event, so you might want to Google “Bike To Work Day 2008″ for more events in your area.

May 21: Ride of Silence
Ride of Silence will begin in North America and roll across the globe. Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Although cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, the motoring public often isn’t aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.

FOR MORE BICYCLE AND CYCLING ADVOCACY INFO
Bikes Belong Coalition
(very nice design, excellent up-to-date content)

League of American Bicyclists
(great advocacy info and contact forms to talk to politicians about cycling rights/issues)

Bicycling Magazine’s This Just In blog

Please feel free to share links and resources that you find helpful. Happy National Bike Month!

It’s a shame our leaders can only tell us to “buy, buy, buy” during an economic downturn (slump, recession, whatever you want to call this). As the price of fuel and food climbs upward, they should be urging us to grow Victory Gardens, pitching in to sustain ourselves and reduce our dependence on industrial methods and foreign fuels. When economic recession coincides with a global climate crisis, it makes even more sense.

When you grow even a small portion of your own food, you reap manifold benefits. You get the satisfaction of reducing your dependence on others for your most basic needs. Vegetables are absolutely the best thing you can eat, and when you grow your own they are cheaper, fresher and tastier. You get to control what fertilizer is used (or not) to grow them, and no petroleum is required to truck them to your kitchen. You get to slow down a bit and maybe connect with your neighbor to swap surplus tomatoes or borrow a shovel. Best of all, you get to be out in the fresh air, using your muscles with a real purpose and not just completing sets of reps. It’s the perfect solution: get in shape while improving your diet.

Michael Pollan makes the point more completely in his essay, Why Bother?:

It is one of the absurdities of the modern division of labor that, having replaced physical labor with fossil fuel, we now have to burn even more fossil fuel to keep our unemployed bodies in shape [i.e., driving ourselves to the gym].

I say we take his advice. Let’s skip the health club this summer and work out in our back yards instead.

(Photo: Flickr - Dr. Hemmert)

Most of the time, I don’t think a whole lot about my safety while I run or bike. I’ve been doing it for a long time and I’ve never had a serious problem. But running, and especially biking, is not without risk.

The obvious risk comes in the form of a few tons of steel and glass strapped to 4 wheels - cars, trucks, and traffic in general. America unfortunately, isn’t the most enlightened place when it comes to respecting bikes and pedestrians. For the most part it’s fine, but there’s always the random inattentive driver or even worse, the driver thats upset you’d have the audacity to run or bike on an actual road.

The not-so-obvious risk are numerous as well. What would happen if I fainted from heat exhaustion like this guy? What if had a heart attack or stroke? What if I took a spill in a remote place on my bike and was left unconscious?

I’m generally not a panic-inclined fellow, and I realize that most of the scenarios above are statistically improbable. However, when you solo run 12, 15 or 20 miles in all sorts of severe weather over the course of several hours, it makes you think about things like this. What if something happened to me? I’m 8 miles from the nearest phone! Thankfully, there’s a simple answer and it’s called Road I.D.

I picked one of these I.D. bracelets up a few weeks back and couldn’t be more impressed with the product. The concept is simple. It’s a lightweight bracelet that holds an engraved plaque with you vital info on it. My name. Emergency phone numbers. Blood type. Allergies. You get the idea.

I’ve been wearing it on all of my rides and runs and I can think of more instances where it would come in handy as well, such as extended backpacking trips or traveling abroad. If a bracelet isn’t your style, they have a bunch of other options as well. Check out Road I.D. It’s a simple thing that may end up saving your life sometime.

And before you ask, this isn’t a paid posting for Road I.D. I just think that it’s a great product from a company that decided to do one thing and do it very well.

As a long-distance runner, my father taught me to warm up before my runs, cool down and always stretch afterwards to prevent injury. But even after following this fatherly advice, I’ve always had running-associated injuries (admittedly I’m also chronic “run-through-the-pain” runner which probably doesn’t help).

A recent New York Times article even discusses this disconnect, “The truth is that after dozens of studies and years of debate, no one really knows whether stretching helps, harms, or does anything in particular for performance or injury rates.”

So, why do I continue to stretch? The reason I stretch after my runs is more emotional than physical. There’s nothing better than calming my body down to an almost meditative state by concentrating my movements. Unlike the “runner’s high” I get while I’m running, it’s rewarding to breathe a slow, controlled pace and think about my accomplishment. It’s my way of coming back down to earth.

At HDC, we continuously seek to understand the mind of the Active Lifestyle Consumer. And it strikes me as interesting that as an active lifer, my emotional state is associated with my fitness activity, but it’s also more complex. My emotions change from a state of excitement/enjoyment while I’m doing my activity to a calm/relaxed emotional state as I stretch from my workout. As marketers, we need to acknowledge these emotional complexities as we think about the consumer’s entire fitness experience and what they are really seeking from that activity.

For my peace of mind, I think I’ll keep stretching.