New York City bike rack contest: Hoop wins

Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve’s “Hoop” was selected as the new standard bike rack to be installed by the city of New York.

This cast metal circular design is evocative of “an abstracted bicycle tire” according to the City transportation department judges who selected the winning entry.Eco Jym likes it because it reminds him of “Ron Cobb’s ecology symbol.” Read more.

40 Comments

  1. How are they going to pin that thing to the ground? Seems like it wouldn't fit more than a couple bolts. Sure, stealing the rack with a bike wouldn't be convenient, but the rack itself doesn't see, like it would be all that secure, which seems like trouble to me.

  2. How are they going to pin that thing to the ground? Seems like it wouldn't fit more than a couple bolts. Sure, stealing the rack with a bike wouldn't be convenient, but the rack itself doesn't see, like it would be all that secure, which seems like trouble to me.

  3. How are they going to pin that thing to the ground? Seems like it wouldn't fit more than a couple bolts. Sure, stealing the rack with a bike wouldn't be convenient, but the rack itself doesn't see, like it would be all that secure, which seems like trouble to me.

  4. @Tony: There's a photo of this rack in the wild at the NYTimes, but I don't have any clue how it's attached to the ground. Maybe it's glued in place?

    The article describes it as cast iron so it's at leat heavy.

  5. @Tony: There's a photo of this rack in the wild at the NYTimes, but I don't have any clue how it's attached to the ground. Maybe it's glued in place?The article describes it as cast iron so it's at leat heavy.

  6. @al: Boulder Colorado used to take old steering wheels and attach them to parking meters for bike racks. They use commercial metal hoops for their parking meter racks now.

  7. @al: Boulder Colorado used to take old steering wheels and attach them to parking meters for bike racks. They use commercial metal hoops for their parking meter racks now.

  8. Kate, I like those Austin designs – very nice. But does Austin plan to install 5,000 of those like NYC does?

  9. Kate, I like those Austin designs – very nice. But does Austin plan to install 5,000 of those like NYC does?

  10. Considering that Austin has less than a tenth of NYC's population, and even less of which live in areas accessible by bicycles…no.

    😀

  11. Considering that Austin has less than a tenth of NYC's population, and even less of which live in areas accessible by bicycles…no. 😀

  12. @Yokota
    That NYTimes pic looks photoshoped…concept image or something. Look at the way the chain lays on the rack, looks funny.

  13. @YokotaThat NYTimes pic looks photoshoped…concept image or something. Look at the way the chain lays on the rack, looks funny.

  14. @YokotaThat NYTimes pic looks photoshoped…concept image or something. Look at the way the chain lays on the rack, looks funny.

  15. @YokotaThat NYTimes pic looks photoshoped…concept image or something. Look at the way the chain lays on the rack, looks funny.

  16. @Kate
    Those gear tree racks seem like a horrible idea. Just the ideaof tripping and running a shoulder into a giant line of gears…ow.

  17. @KateThose gear tree racks seem like a horrible idea. Just the ideaof tripping and running a shoulder into a giant line of gears…ow.

  18. Those new NYC racks should be popular with the "fixie crowd"…the thing looks like the requisite "Arrospok" (minus one spoke).

  19. Those new NYC racks should be popular with the "fixie crowd"…the thing looks like the requisite "Arrospok" (minus one spoke).

  20. Those new NYC racks should be popular with the "fixie crowd"…the thing looks like the requisite "Arrospok" (minus one spoke).

  21. Those new NYC racks should be popular with the "fixie crowd"…the thing looks like the requisite "Arrospok" (minus one spoke).

  22. It seems to be fixed to the ground by a mounting system that bolts to the ring and then to the ground. I think it looks pretty neat and would be beautiful if there were a dozen of them lined along the whole length of a street. I just wish these racks were designed with more than 2 bikes in mind. They fill up so fast!

  23. It seems to be fixed to the ground by a mounting system that bolts to the ring and then to the ground. I think it looks pretty neat and would be beautiful if there were a dozen of them lined along the whole length of a street. I just wish these racks were designed with more than 2 bikes in mind. They fill up so fast!

  24. It seems to be fixed to the ground by a mounting system that bolts to the ring and then to the ground. I think it looks pretty neat and would be beautiful if there were a dozen of them lined along the whole length of a street. I just wish these racks were designed with more than 2 bikes in mind. They fill up so fast!

  25. While beautiful, it look extremely weak to me. An enormous amount of leverage can be put upon the tiny footprint at the bottom. It looks, however, like the NYT photo of it installed in Astor Place may involve a much larger footplate to solve this very problem.

    A typical design cop-out: Design an elegant object that cannot survive without an ugly prosthetic, but display it in magazines without that prosthetic. It's like electronic devices being shown without bulky ugly power cords.

  26. While beautiful, it look extremely weak to me. An enormous amount of leverage can be put upon the tiny footprint at the bottom. It looks, however, like the NYT photo of it installed in Astor Place may involve a much larger footplate to solve this very problem. A typical design cop-out: Design an elegant object that cannot survive without an ugly prosthetic, but display it in magazines without that prosthetic. It's like electronic devices being shown without bulky ugly power cords.

  27. While beautiful, it look extremely weak to me. An enormous amount of leverage can be put upon the tiny footprint at the bottom. It looks, however, like the NYT photo of it installed in Astor Place may involve a much larger footplate to solve this very problem. A typical design cop-out: Design an elegant object that cannot survive without an ugly prosthetic, but display it in magazines without that prosthetic. It's like electronic devices being shown without bulky ugly power cords.

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