The Thousands

For those who ride them, a bike is never just a bike. It’s a symbol of self-reliance and freedom, it’s a nod to their progressive views and it’s an item to cherish, fetishise and show-off. Flying Machine bicycle design studio realises the manifold roles of the modern bicycle and reflects them in their designs. As such, if you see a Sexy Bicycle or a Base Urban (Flying Machine’s two boutique, in-house bicycle brands) gliding down the road, chances are they’ll be modern, sleek, utilitarian, minimal and chock full of innovation.

Now I realise my last sentence may have come off sounding like a who’s who of vacuous design buzzwords so I’ll give some examples. For the modern/sleek design angle look no further than Sexy Bicycles’ ‘Pulse‘, which combines the latest in fixed-gear style with fluid racing lines well-suited to a velodrome to create a monster of modernism. Flying Machine’s use of towards hub gears rather than the standard derailleur set-up ties in with both their love of minimalism (all the sprockets hidden away) and their utilitarian design philosophy (internal hub gears are more efficient, last longer and require less maintenance). When I talk about innovation, the Base Urban RD1.0 is what I’m thinking of: carbon belt drive, gear shifter built into the brake handle, disc brakes – it’s a bike technophile’s wet dream.