Bicyclive

The problem

Once a bike is sold, the brand no longer knows who has it, how it is ridden or when it needs servicing, and shops can only wait for customers to walk in. Riders worry about theft and crashing alone, and miss having company on the road.

What we did

1. 01Four design guidelines: accessible, connected, safe, fun. The goal: riders love it, brands and shops benefit, and the service sustains itself.
2. 02Anti-theft: when parked, the device switches to security mode with only the G-sensor on; if moved, it wakes GPS and sends alerts with the location to the app. Owners never need to remember to lock up.
3. 03Safety: after a severe impact, it sends the location for the owner to confirm; if there is no response and no movement, it alerts pre-set contacts.
4. 04Records and notifications: logs every ride’s time and route, connects to heart-rate monitors and power meters, and pushes location-based offers and service reminders from nearby shops.
5. 05Social and companionship: it signals when riders with the same device are nearby — to borrow a tool or ride together — and the bike “expresses moods” with its LED, reluctant before rain, restless when it hasn’t been ridden in a while.
6. 06Two hardware options compared: with its own cellular link (full-featured but power-hungry, costly and heavy) or without (cheap and light, syncing via the phone). Buyers register by QR code, confirm with a social account, and ride home.

Where it stands

• Brands get usage reports — who, on which bike, how far, where — and the analysis tells shops what to stock and prompts customers to come back for service.
• A proof-of-concept plan covering product and service design, hardware, app, back end and field testing, championed by the head of the group’s North American business.
• In 2018 the group reorganized and pulled the project back for review; during the review its champion left the company, and the project stalled. The concept and data architecture later became the foundation of rideem.bike.

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