It's smiling at me!

So, I'm REALLY close to a final design for my Kickstarter, and I've realized that the main plastic part has a face, with googly eyes and a wide grin. I think this is reason enough to give it a friendly name!



Send me clever name suggestions. If I choose yours, you get a 6-pack of local craft beer (or some kind of equivalent).

The device is:
TINY - about the size of an ipod shuffle
MIGHTY - it keeps a bike 100x its size from falling over
QUICK to install and to engage
It will be part of a product line with a VINTAGE personality
And, as I said, it's obviously in a good mood :)

Name away!

Kicking It Up a Few Notches

I've been plunking down deadlines and goal-dates to keep my butt in gear, and one of the big things I'm planning is my first Toynbee Kickstarter. I had to muck through multiple concepts that I felt would be good Kickstarter products, and I have latched onto one that meets much of the criteria for success. It's small and simple, but powerful when used. It's unique, can be locally-made, and I can make versions in different materials and colors, offering a range of reward options to funders.


Now, you might be asking, what is this magical widget?
Well, I can't tell you.
But I can say it fits the scope of Toynbee's mission, serving urbanites who walk, bike or take transit.

This week I will be getting prices from vendors who will potentially be making the parts, and figuring out what the prices will be on the product, and getting my ducks in a row to launch a fun, compelling Kickstarter campaign by the beginning of Summer.

Stay tuned.....

Wee Steps

I decided this post will not be profound, or even mildly amusing, but I have been working, and I just wanted to document....
What I've been doing:

Revising and improving my Mission and Plan

Making lists and lists of people I'd like to ask to design my visual identity, website, and possibly hire as part-time biz manager.

<< Building scale models of shopping cart concepts.

Dredging up info on filing my business license.


Sketching up Cart concepts that are more similar to luggage.

Ideating about other contraptions I might also produce.

Generating evaluation charts comparing potential product strengths+weaknesses, hoping to determine which will be best to launch first.

Sketching ideas of how the Satchel functions on your lap, and while standing in a packed bus

Sourcing and costing some of the materials for the Cart and Satchel.

Going off on weird tangents.

Sometimes progress is boring :-\

This Ain't Your Granny's Cart

Firstly, I must apologize for getting sidetracked for quite some time with my posts. In October I signed a lease on a shared studio, and then realized that I was going to have trouble getting work done there, so after jumping through all the hoops to get out of that situation, I concluded that I would be better off doing office-work at COOP in River North, and shop-work at our local Hackerspace, PS:1. So just this Friday, I put in my first day at COOP, and got a delightful amount of work done, and then Saturday, I popped into PS:1, and got some prototyping done!

On the heels of my post on developing a more useful schlepping cart for urbanites, I am working on a re-do of the granny cart.
What you see here is just a functional form study, using cardboard from some old boxes, wheels off a discarded stroller, and some scrap aluminum trim. I based the box height on a grocery store cart, and realized that a lower height is necessary, but I like the handle height, so that will stay about the same. Lots of other things would be changed, such as ground clearance, and the depth of the box.

Priority one is that it be more durable, functional, and appealing as a means to convey your goods than the standard folding metal cart, that typically has a pretty short life due to crappy plastic wheels and rust-prone, flimsy metal. I want that criteria squared away first, then I will consider how to make it also do double-duty as a bike trailer.

But I am a firm believer in a variation of the Pareto Principle, where typically 20% of your design constraints represent 80% of the obstacles to reaching a good design solution. That most difficult 20% may turn out to be trying to make the design collapsible, or it may be the attempt to make it a bike trailer too. I'm going to make a valiant attempt at achieving both, but I'm prepared to ditch one or both, in order to just get to a better-functioning cart.

Grocery Getter

I just followed an electron trail from other blogs to come across this one, and in particular this post:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/20/mmm-challenge-try-getting-your-groceries-with-a-bike-trailer/

A couple quotes jumped out at me, for their stark contrast:
"It’s very frustrating to drive to any of these stores, because you can see your final destination long before you reach it. “Oh! There’s the grocery store right there! Oh, shit, but here’s a long traffic light. Slow down. Stop. Idle. Wait for the crossing street’s left turners. Wait for the crossing street’s main traffic. Red light for everyone. Wait for the oncoming traffic’s left turners. OK, finally green for me. GO!!! Cut into a turning lane. Wait for more traffic. Enter parking lot. Wait for moms and kids pushing shopping carts. Wait for single lady to back out of parking space at 0.0007 MPH in the shiny black Escalade. Take spot far from store. Get out, lock car, start walking."

That, compared to Mrs. M's first bike grocery experience:
"The bike ride was extremely pleasant, even though it was all by road..... I cut through a park and took the small back roads to end up behind the grocery store (I’m sure you can find a special route as well). I got there quickly and was amazed at how easy and relaxing the bike ride was – it was quiet and I hardly saw a car. I locked the bike right next to the front door (how convenient is that!?)...."


This to me is a good quality of life indicator. If the regular tasks of life add to your stress and annoyance, then something is wrong with the way you're having to do them.

Prototype Early and Often!

Many of you may recognize this first prototype, seeing as I've been carrying my laptop and class materials in it for nearly three months now.

It's a Modello cosmetic bag from a thrift store, that I've modded slightly to do a few key things:








-- Strap connections have been repositioned, so it hangs vertically.





-- Old strap was replaced with new strap with pivoting hooks.

-- Small end seam has been opened, allowing pens to be stowed within grasp.

-- Exterior pocket has been positioned to face your back, so magazines are within grasp.

-- Piece of rigid plastic was inserted into the center to make the whole bag semi-rigid.

-- Interior pocket holds laptop in center, and rigid plastic provides impact protection.

The primary purpose was to create a professional-looking satchel that would be less obtrusive in crowds - especially on busses and trains - and also be more user-friendly for transit riders.

So far, despite needing some detail tweaks, it works better than any bag I've ever bought.




All photos: Carl Boyd 
Model: Erin DeWitt

What about a walk-bak?

I often find myself lugging things just a few blocks, and wishing I had a good, capacious cart to lug everything from animals to furniture just the 1/4 mile to my apartment. I've been taking note of how people are getting this done right now.

We are very accustomed to seeing people lugging shopping or laundry around in these:


...and regularly see kids, dogs and entire picnics loaded in these:

And I just saw a construction worker towing tools in this:

And this really wouldn't be a surprising sight in my neck o' the woods:

All of these solutions work, but I feel they all have weaknesses. The granny carts are made very cheaply, and are too deep to reach down into. The Radio Flyers are not very durable, and like the strollers, really are just made for kids, and the utility cart is just too .... utilitarian.

As much as I love the idea of loading all of this on some cool bakfiets (Dutch for 'box-bike') and zipping off, the idea struck me that the bike part of a bakfiets makes the cargo part very incompatible with owners living in small apartments, who don't have a good place to store them, and it also makes adding collapsibility very challenging.

What if there was just a really spacious, durable cart for schlepping things a few blocks in your neighborhood? What about a collapsible walk-bak?