To celebrate Pi (?) Day (March 14) as well as Albert Einstein’s birthday, Amsterdam-based design company WE ARE Pi created the world’s first PiCycle. In collaboration with London-based artist Tadas Maksimovas and Dutch designer Martijn Koomen, the inspiration for the PiCycle came from Malaysian graphic designer Yau Hoong’s sketches. It is a rideable, fixed gear bicycle handmade out of carbon fibre in the shape of the pi symbol.
According to Maksimovas, they had to sketch out the frame shape first and then tweaked, adjusted and tested scale models made out of cardboard and plywood. Once the frame size and shape were locked, they made moulds to cast the frame with resin. After its casting, they sanded it down and assembled the bike.
However, that was only half of the work; the frame’s final version required new moulds. That casting used stronger enforced carbon fibre followed by re-assembly. The PiCycle is an excellent representative of the company’s mission to enthusiastically support ideas that move the world forward – celebrating mathematics, ingenuity and design, with a fun and artistic twist.
