11
05
09

Mark Sanders’ IF-Mode for Areaware

IF-Mode - Folded - Mark Sanders

The clean and strik­ing IF Mode is aimed at com­muters of the mobile gen­er­a­tion who, until now, may have not con­sid­ered cycling or fold­ing bikes to be an option. IF Mode avoids oily chains, com­plex tubes with hid­den dirt traps, and the clut­ter of tra­di­tional bike fea­tures. Meant for city com­muters rather than bicy­cle war­riors, it looks at home folded up on a sub­way or in an office, like other well designed acces­sories in your life. It also per­forms on the street like any light­weight, well-balanced full size bike.

Areaware is a New York City based com­pany renowned for unique design prod­ucts with an empha­sis on for­ward think­ing tech­nolo­gies and orig­i­nal expres­sion. Our prod­ucts are dec­o­ra­tive but go beyond orna­ment. Each has an under­ly­ing mean­ing which we believe can deepen the rela­tion­ship peo­ple have with the every­day objects in their lives.

Designer’ Bio:

Mark Sanders is the Prin­ci­pal of MAS Design — a prod­uct design and engi­neer­ing con­sul­tancy estab­lished in 1984. He was an early grad­u­ate of the Indus­trial Design Engi­neer­ing (IDE) course at the Royal Col­lege of Art/Imperial Col­lege, and has fol­lowed the same holis­tic design prin­ci­ples in busi­ness. He is now a vis­it­ing tutor on the IDE course and runs MAS Design from a self-built home/office/workshop. MAS design spe­cial­izes in inte­grat­ing engi­neer­ing and indus­trial design. Its prod­uct port­fo­lio includes a wide range of award-winning patented prod­ucts from kitchen tools to oper­at­ing tables, indus­trial valves to fold­ing bicycles.

IF-Mode - Mark Sanders

IF-Mode - Folded - Mark Sanders

[ via Areaware, MAS Design, Yatzer ]

Share

Posted in: Industrial Design, Media Gallery.

Tags:

, , , ,

  • Sebas­t­ian Franck

    Nice … so where do I buy this Beauty? (you guys need a per­sua­sion archi­tect … you awaken the desire, but give me no out­let. Tsk)

  • http://www.askthepharmacist.wordpress.com Phar­ma­cist Millie

    I agree. I really like this design but have no idea where to see it. I’d love to know how it rides.

  • http://www.minusfive.com Jorge Vil­lalo­bos

    I hear you guys. I can com­mu­ni­cate with the designer… Where are you? Where would you like to see it?

    Edit: By the way, the link to Areaware in the arti­cle links to the prod­uct page where you can buy the bike from. It’s $2250 at their online store.

  • http://www.mas-design.com Mark

    There is lots of info about IF bikes on the man­u­fac­tur­ers site: http://​www​.pacific​-cycles​.com

    IF Mode is one of a range of bikes, at var­i­ous prices, weights and spec’s — other IF Bikes include a full sus­pen­sion 20″ racer ‘IF Reach’, and a con­ven­tional look­ing ver­sion of the IF Mode called ‘IF Urban’, with both 26″ and uniquely: 700c wheel options (these cost a lot less than the top of the range IF Mode). They also have an elec­tric pow­ered ver­sion of the IF reach called reach DC — which ben­e­fits from the same ‘roll when folded’ mechanism.

    Pacific have had huge demand for the IF Mode, and as they hand make these bikes, they are only grad­u­ally begin­ning to catch up. Most demand is from Japan, Korea, Tai­wan, but you can pre-order at areaware​.com for the USA. … me, I’m just the designer — I don’t have any­thing to do with sales and dis­tri­b­u­tion, but I do get to test them :-)

  • http://www.minusfive.com Jorge Vil­lalo­bos

    Thanks for your reply Mark! Hope this helps our readers.

  • http://www.dom-mechta.ru Viadimir.Strelkov

    Dear Mark,You are genius indus­trial Designer. Your bike fan­tas­ti­caly mir­a­cle. I buy Your model. Per­mit me to light(weight) Your Bike till 5.0 Kg., instead 32 lb With respect Vladimir.Strelkov

  • http://www.bluetempt.com Zou Luyang

    That’s pretty cool bike~

  • andrea zehet­ner

    I want one!!!

  • http://mygourmetguide.blogspot.com José

    Hi,

    If auto­mo­tive indus­tries had ded­i­cated them­selves to cre­ative vehi­cles, like this guy did, maybe today they wouldn’t be in a such bad position.

    Kind regards,

    José

  • eilon

    does the Mode have a kevlar belt sim­i­lar to the Strida (which i own…)?

  • kris

    i love to see peo­ple think­ing out­side the box. great bike, i built one like it a year ago and counted it as a failed attempt. it is not easy to build such a cre­ation as many peo­ple sup­pose. congrats

  • http://arsitektur.blog.gunadarma.ac.id/ hanum

    wow prac­ti­cally it’s a cre­ative design. I like it. Good job ^_^

  • daniel toro

    aspera pa ir a quebec

  • http://uninhibitedspeech.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/the-most-convenient-bike-ever/ The Most Con­ve­nient Bike Ever « Unin­hib­ited Speech

    […] via | minusfive […]

  • Dar­ren

    It’s beau­ti­ful but I dont see it being too prac­ti­cal. Theres no stan­dard bike parts on it so repair would be hell. And there are so many hinges in it I can’t imag­ine it has a very solid feel­ing ride. For some­one whos seri­ous about bik­ing I think there are bet­ter fold­ing options out there. Most have small wheels but there are fold­ing bikes like Mon­tagues that use large wheels and all stan­dard parts.

  • TIm Harcourt-Powell

    I agree with Dar­ren — can it really be that finan­cially viable if things start brak­ing off? Then again, if it’s pro­duced half as well as it looks, then I imag­ine it’s pretty solid. It’s a stun­ning piece of design!