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What Do Dyson Hair Dryers and Vacuum Cleaners Have in Common With EVs? An e-Bike

Bicycle design has come a long way since the early days. Today, bikes are found in all shapes, sizes, and most recently, power levels and range. One particular designer spins things out of control and has shown up with a vacuum cleaner-inspired e-bike.
Dyson Urban Bike 12 photos
Photo: Philipp Seißler
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Ok, to say that this e-bike design is inspired by vacuum cleaners may be a bit much. Still, the Dyson Urban Bike, as its been dubbed by its creator, is an e-bike design that takes inspiration from Britain's famed household appliance manufacturer.

Even though Dyson doesn’t have any actual involvement in this project, Philipp Seißler, an industrial designer from Berlin, Germany, decided to follow the design philosophy of the famed manufacturer to create a sleek e-bike that has the potential to make it into the real deal.

The personal project revolves around an idea that Dyson has expressed in the past: creating an EV suitable for urban mobility, although that vehicle was an actual car. It’s possible you may have heard of that venture if you follow autoevolution, but the Dyson Automotive team abandoned that project as they stated it wasn’t commercially viable.

Dyson EV
Photo: Dyson
With the idea of following through with a Dyson-branded EV, this concept was born. Sure, it may not be a car, but a design like this may have been one way Dyson could have approached the electric revolution. Everyone understands that the automotive industry is where big money is, but to go from producing vacuum cleaners and hairdryers to EVs that can rival automakers the likes of Tesla and Rimac is by no means an easy feat.

Now, the Urban Bike does look a bit different than most other bikes you may be used to in that the frame design includes several tweaks rarely seen on a bicycle. The first discerning feature is a huge bend in the top tube that causes it to drop before the seat tube and eventually progress into becoming the seat stay.

This design makes the seat tube position appear to be off, but if you look at the head tube angle in comparison, you’ll notice that the geometry is quite normal and settles the rider into a classic position.

Dyson Urban Bike
Photo: Philipp Seißler
You can deduce that this bike is clearly meant to be driven on city streets as no suspension on the fork or frame is visible. Only the tires are to provide any vibrational attenuation. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a suspension in the seat tube.

At the rear of the bike, you can see a massive rear hub motor. The last time I saw a rear hub motor of this size was on the Super Soco TC moped, and that little trinket can hit speed upwards of 90 kph (56 mph). Even though the designer states nothing about the power of this motor, that sort of speed is surely not safe on a bicycle—unless you’re wearing one of those new inflatable airbag vests everyone’s talking about.

Philipp does seem to be up to date with e-bike design as this concept is to be driven by something very similar to a Gates Carbon drivetrain, including a single-speed setup with a toothed belt; classic Gates. As for the battery of the bike, no mention is made where it could be hidden, but charging does offer a clue.

Dyson Urban Bike
Photo: Philipp Seißler
One charging method allows the rider to detach the headlight, which can be used as a plugin for any classic outlet in your home or office; the second method recharges the battery wirelessly via a special wall-mounted bike rack. This last feature hints that the battery could be hidden in the top tube, but the designer doesn’t reveal if this is true.

Completed with internal cable routing and disc brakes, this Dyson Urban Bike comes a long way from vacuum cleaners and air filters and makes an effort to integrate into the current EV revolution. That said, my instincts tell me that we may never see this design become a reality.
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Editor's note: Gallery also includes photos of Dyson's stillborn EV project.

About the author: Cristian Curmei
Cristian Curmei profile photo

A bit of a nomad at heart (being born in Europe and raised in several places in the USA), Cristian is enamored with travel trailers, campers and bikes. He also tests and writes about urban means of transportation like scooters, mopeds and e-bikes (when he's not busy hosting our video stories and guides).
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