So this is quite bizarre.

As I’m locking up my own bike I see this rather bizarre version of a bike strapped to another lamp post – tiny front wheel/ normal size back wheel (top pic). A week ago I saw another bike that also had a tiny wheel as part of its frame: except this one was on the back and was my vote for the design of the year at the Design Museum Brit Insurance Design Awards 2011 (bottom pic).

The Yike Bike costs about US$3500, takes 30 mins to charge and gives you 10k range. Amazing. It folds up into a neat little bag that you can carry over your shoulder. It’s the future. It has to be. Unless you’re really fat in which case, the Yike Bike is probably not for you. Probably why it’s called Yike – if you’re thin you wouldn’t want fat people on it (“Yikes – don’t sit on that”) and if you’re fat you’d probably wouldn’t want to be coerced into using it even if it becomes the de facto form of urban transport (“Yikes – I”m not sitting on that”)

The Yike Bike