Behind the Design: The Pi Bicycle

Pi Day may already be behind us (March 14th), but there are plenty of other ways to celebrate the mathematical constant over the rest of the year.

The Pi Bike is a fixed gear bicycle from the minds of Martijn Koomen and Tadas Maksimovas in collaboration with ideas company WE ARE Pi. Inspired by a pi bike illustration by Malaysian artist Yau Hoong, the two set out to make the fictional bike a (rideable) reality.

Creating a bicycle shaped like a Pi symbol isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, but doing so in such a way that can support a human being and provide a smooth, efficient ride is. The designers spent a considerable amount of time developing various concepts before coming up with a Pi-inspired form that could hold a rider’s weight and remain balanced.

From there, different scale models were created out of cardboard and plywood to test if the bike would be able to fit standard bicycle proportions as well as keep its signature shape.

When the designers were confident that the bike wouldn’t crumble under the weight of a math geek trying to get into shape, they created molds to cast the final bike design out of resin. The cast was then sanded down and assembled into a final form.

With the final design set, a new cast was made using stronger enforced carbon fiber. Just like the resin mold, the material needed to be sanded and assembled (albeit with a more professional look) to give it a final finish.

Let those bystanders try and stop your infinite computations now!

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