I haven’t been in the cycling industry too many years, but I’ve already seen some proprietary systems for racks and accessories that attempt to lure you into a particular brand’s inbred family. These are racks and bags that work best with sibling products.
Racktime has it’s Snapit system, and Thule has it’s Pack n Pedal line of bags and racks.
But Loko Bike Racks are a new concept that is mad scientist in it’s ambitions for world domination.
And judging only from their Kickstarter project page, it looks really cool.
The rack system does many tricks, but my favorite is how it can turn any bike into a cargo bike.
I used to have a trailer-cycle, but when the kids got too big for it, I contemplated how I might turn it into a single wheel bike cargo trailer — a contemplation that lasted for about 20 seconds before I decided it was less work to sell it on Craigslist.
It turns out I’m not the first one to have that thought. It’s just that I’m among the 99.9% of cyclists who have never done anything about it. The guys behind Loko did something about it. In fact, the trailer-cycler conversion was their original inspiration for the whole system.
When mounted to your bike, Loko promises to provide 80 percent of the functionality of a cargo bike. Why not 100 percent? I imagine that you can’t really cantilever the full platform length of, say, an Extracycle cargo kit, onto a bike with a conventional wheel base without causing involuntary wheelies.
The “O-Mount” system, they say, is positioned to become a universal standard. That’s pretty bold.
Other components include a “U-rack,” and “V-bars.” Other letters of the alphabet expropriated in the near future.
Perhaps my favorite aspect of the video is that they have pixelated over the sexy parts of the rack — that is to say the patent-pending parts. But it makes me feel like I’m watching something salacious that’s been censored — it makes me all the more curious to see what they’re hiding.
The bike child seat scenario seems to be thought through the least, considering the animation in the video. (A proper rear child seat scenario includes foot rests and more back support.) But hey, you can mount a skateboard to the system.
I also like that they’ve thought about e-bike adaptations (but not so thrilled about the gas-powered motors). If the rack is easy to remove, you would be able to easily remove the heaviest part of an e-bike.
I’m hoping to see this project funded, and possibly test it in the future.