Civia Bryant Dropout Development

Monday, July 26, 2010 | 2 Comments Written by: Burton Avery

I’m the industrial designer here at Civia.  I collaborate with a team of people, such as, engineers and a brand manager on Civia’s products.  I am responsible for what industrial designers call form or the way our products look in terms of shape.

In the next few blog posts I’ll be delving in to the design process for the Civia Bryant.    By explaining design features in detail, hopefully you’ll get the idea that that the Civia Bryant is more than just sum of it’s parts.  The Bryant's modular dropout allows for a range of different drivetrain solutions.

When the design process for the Civia Bryant first started belt drive compatibility was not a requirement or even on the table.  The bike we were thinking of was a straight forward steel drop-bar transportation bike. That was almost two years ago.  Then a number of factors changed and Civia design team realized belt-drive was a viable technology perfectly suited to transportation bikes.

Sketching at its most basic is to allow for quick problem solving. These concepts are in no particular order, so they're not great for showing a linear process but they show how ideas are developed.

The key design constraint of the Gates carbon belt that the Bryant uses is that the belt can not be “broken” like a regular chain can. (On a traditional bike you break the chain to get the chain on the rear cog and then put the chain back together again.)  There are a number of ways to achieve belt compatibility. Each solution has positives and negative. To maximize the positives for the Bryant user experience, the design team at Civia used a rigorous design process to create a belt-drive solution from the ground up.   

From there we develop the solutions in Solidworks, a 3-d CAD software program.  I'll go into more detail in another post but notice the split on the drive side dropout.  This is for the belt.

Here is a prototype of the dropouts.

 In my next post I'll go into more detail on the modularity of the dropout.

Thanks for reading.

This post filed under topics: Bryant

Summertime and the livin’ is easy

Monday, July 19, 2010 | 0 Comments Written by: Burton Avery

“Summertime and the livin' in easy…” Bess, Porgy and Bess, G. Gershwin, 1935

Ella Fitzgerald singing Summertime slips into my consciousness every now and then these days when I’m on the bike. At Civia we ride our bikes for transportation. That means riding everyday. I love riding everyday because it heightens my awareness of my environment. I notice things like wind direction and quality of light when I am on my bike.

 It was 94 and very humid last week here in Minneapolis. The air was thick, but was a great commute home. The speed of the bike created a nice breeze on my skin, while my body was soaking up the heat and humidity and storing it for our long winter.

The irony here is that the majority of my design work at Civia goes into designing for the non-easy days of summer; the rainy days, the cold windy days, the days when having the right tool for the job makes transportation by bicycle a finely tuned experience.

We’ll be using the Civia blog more frequently to explore what makes our bicycles transportation bicycles. But for now be sure to enjoy these easy summer riding days.

This post filed under topics: Commuting

Product arrival updates

Friday, July 2, 2010 | 1 Comments Written by: Scott Thayer

We've got a few containers heading our way with some fun, new product in them.  Here's what the latest delivery dates look like:

- Last week of July, our new design wool blend knickers will arrive.  We've got 5 sizes this time around, 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38.  Depending on how the sizing works out, we're considering adding a 40 and women's sizes.

- Early August, our new plastic fenders will arrive.  We've got 4 types ranging from the no-frills price-point fenders to the highest end with double stainless steel struts, stainless hardware and a long rubber fender.

- Our expanded rack selection is going to start arriving at the end of August and trickle in over the next couple of months.  We've got a few designs that look great and are really functional.  We're also pricing them for easier acquisition, starting at $30ish MSRP and going up from there.

Look for more info in the coming weeks as things start arriving!

Summer Storms

Monday, June 28, 2010 | 0 Comments Written by: Scott Thayer

We had some pretty major storms roll through the Twin Cities Friday and Saturday.

Riding home in front of the first storm on Friday, I had the pleasure of seeing lightning strike a large cottonwood tree about 50 yards in front of me.  Seeing the distinct center of the lightning bolt and the white glow around it while hearing the ripping air and the sharp crack of thunder at the same time was pretty intense.  The tree wasn’t obviously damaged, though the strike knocked some dead branches and leaves out of the tree.

 The remaining 2 miles home along the Minnehaha parkway was pretty fast…

Rain, Fenders, Misc…

Monday, June 14, 2010 | 7 Comments Written by: Scott Thayer

It's been a rainy late spring so far.  I was skeptical about the early forecast for a cooler and rainier summer than average, but I guess that's holding true. 

My ride in this morning was quite pleasant with full fenders, wool clothing and a bike driven by a belt.  I remain super-impressed with the belt system.  Once you get it tensioned, it's truly a ride it and forget it system.  Totally silent and essentially maintenence free, it's the ultimate for day-in-day-out commuting.

In related news, Civia is expanding its selection of fenders.  We are growing both our selection of metal fenders and venturing into polycarbonate (plastic) fenders.  We're updating our Hyland fenders for the same great coverage, but with better attachments and hardware.  We're also introducing flat aluminum fenders and will offer a rounded stainless steel steel fender in a 45mm width and an ample rubber tail.

I'm excited about our plastic fenders.  We took a look at the tried and true plastic fender and feel we've improved on it in a couple ways: We went slightly wider than some of the other ones on the market with our 700c fenders coming in 40 and 50mm widths for today's wider tires.  We also improved the hardware spec with stainless bolts on the middle and high end fenders.  They also feature bolts with captured washers so you don't have to worry about which washer goes with which bolt.  Lastly, we added our 3 dot logo in a reflective material to the back of each fender, so you get a little branding that isn't overwhelming and is actually functional.  We're expecting these to be available in early-middle August.  We're offering three levels of plastic fender and pricing starts around $30 and goes up towards $50.

Lastly, we're going to be releasing our 2011 catalog for some early season promotion around the middle of July.  We'll be introducing some fun things in there, so keep your eyes open for it.  The parts we're unveiling will start trickling in shortly afterwards.  New bikes, if there are any, wouldn't be until February-ish and no models are going away...

Enjoy!