Urbancyclo, a new Oxford product design company with a mission to apply 'revolutionary thinking' to the needs of today’s urban cyclists, launches itself into business with a new twist on the bike handlebar stem, destined to revolutionise cycling in cities and towns. The Quicktwist® stem is the brainchild and invention of Urbancyclo’s founder and designer Andy Bullock, an ex-Saatchi and Saatchi art
director with a background in design, art and photography. It has been developed in conjunction with Adrian Ward, the technical half of the team and an ex-Formula One design engineer (Williams, Benetton and Arrows). Adrian brings years of extensive engineering knowledge to the product design and also currently works at Oxford Brookes, in the university’s world-renowned automotive design department. Parking and storage of cycles is a perennial problem with the width of the handlebars making the bike an extremely awkward shape to manage. The Quicktwist® design enables the handlebars on any cycle to be rotated up to 90° in either direction reducing the width of a bike by up to 80%. With a single ‘click and twist’ operation, and without the need for any tools, this makes for easy city parking as well as compact storage in hallways, sheds, garages, and with the company’s own Urbancyclo wall mounts you could even hang up your pride and joy on the living room wall. The design is a world-first, there is no other product approaching the problem in the same manner available anywhere and, what’s more, it can be fitted to practically any bike on the road today. It is anticipated that cycle dealers will offer the Quicktwist® stem as an upgrade ‘option’ to customers purchasing a new cycle and with sales and distribution for the product worldwide Urbancyclo aim to put this new Oxford design brand right at the forefront of innovation for the world’s urban cyclists. Representing true design innovation from the ‘city of ideas’, the Quicktwist® stem was not only inspired by Oxford living and designed in Oxford but will also be manufactured locally and CNC precision milled from solid lightweight alloy. The Quicktwist® stem is patent pending and International Design Bureau registered and is expected to retail around £85 GBP. Urbancyclo intend to crowdfund the initial manufacturing run of the Quicktwist® stem with a 30 day campaign on the Kickstarter website, with the start date being announced on this page and to the press very shortly.