As far as innovative electric motorcycle designs go, Tryal may just be the best we’ve seen, yet. Designed by Erik Askin, an Associate Design Director in a San Fransisco company, the bold and daring electric motorbike concept recently won the Rizoma design challenge tagged “The Future of Motorcycling”. From its appearance, it’s easy to conclude that Tryal takes a lot of inspiration from the Super73-style mini bikes that are currently making waves in the electric motorcycle market. However, the rounded triangular frame is as radical as it gets.
According to Askin, Tryal is the answer to the motorcycle industry’s tilt towards power and performance. In his words, “the future of motorcycling will hinge on getting more riders on two wheels. In an industry catering towards performance and horsepower, the Tryal bike offers a friendlier approach. Simple, approachable and most importantly fun, this is a bike that is easy for anyone to ride.”
Design and features
As mentioned earlier, Tryal features a conspicuous, rounded triangular frame that makes up virtually all of the bike’s body. The frame houses the large battery pack and the motor. Mounted around the rear swingarm pivot, the motor unsurprisingly uses a belt drive. The popularity of bikes with belt drives as opposed to chains has spiked in recent times because of their low noise and low maintenance.
The suspension components of Tryal are limited to an inverted fork up front as well as a rear mono-shock on the swingarm. Still, the large frame and sturdy wheels ensure the bike does not look less than solid.
Not your high-speed bike
Tryal’s braking system comprises single-piston hydraulic disk brakes. Traditionally, high-speed bikes are known to sport more sophisticated braking systems. When you factor in the 14-in wheels, it’s easy to conclude that the bike’s top speed would not be eye-popping. Essentially, it’s a lightweight mini-scooter than can do a fine job of getting you around without doing much harm to the environment.
Solo ride
Like most other mini-bikes, pillion pegs are absent on the Tryal design. If you’re thinking of taking your partner on a bike ride, this solo bike may not be the bike you need. The straight bench seat and low wheels further suggest that Tryal will only be suited for urban riding. You might have a hard time maintaining your balance on rough roads with this bike design.
Limited info on specs
There isn’t much information about specifications such as battery capacity, charging times, range, top speed, price, etc. Perhaps, this is because the bike is only a design concept and there’s little to suggest that it would be transferred to a manufacturing plant. Whatever happens, it feels refreshing that electric bikes are getting the attention they deserve and we’re having a peek into what the motorcycles of the future may look like.
Startup
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.
Actions
Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.
Design principles
Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".
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