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Sting in the tale

Even at this early stage of research, I am finding an awful lot of evidence that ties bike design in with open innovation. On the institute of manufacturing website, there is a good account of how the Raleigh Chopper developed. Taking its inspiration from ‘chopped’ motorcycles known as Choppers, children in California went on to make modifications of their own to push bikes, producing a new and distinct category of bicycle. The IFM also makes reference to Eric Von Hippel (author of the book ‘Democratizing Innovation’) who seemingly refers to this process as ‘the “lead-user” phenomenon.’

However, the site credits Schwinn with being the first to respond to this open innovation not Raleigh. In 1962 a young Schwinn engineer named Al Fritz picked up on this growing trend for ‘chopped’ bikes and made the trip out to California to see it for himself. (This is where it gets interesting) This is taken from Schwinn’s site

“[...]he set out to create a bike that not only looked like the newest West Coast creations, but also lent itself to customization, enabling kids to trick out their wheels just as older kids were customizing their hot rods and choppers. After scanning the dictionary for just the right name, he christened his new bike the Sting-Ray, after the winged creature of the sea.”

The Sting-Ray series ended up with the Orange Krate, a bike Raleigh would soon copy with its Raleigh Rodeo in 67′; an obvious evolutionary step towards the Chopper. These iconic bikes are a direct result of open innovation that not only was Fritz clever enough to pick up on but also smart enough to encourage, ensuring his designs could be further modified. More research on the Web provided me with this article on the development of the Chopper; no great inventions it seems are left uncontested.

“I’m here to spill the ugly tin of beans…… Raleigh had for some time been, basically, copying every move that Schwinn made.[...] Raleigh always had a range of bikes exclusively for the US market that never appeared on our shores. These bikes usually had the Schwinn style cantilever frame design, with two thin crossbars curving gracefully up from the rear wheel to the headstock. Also, unlike our familiar front forks with chrome ‘dimples’, seen on UK Raleighs, the US bikes often had a front fork almost identical to Schwinn’s. It comes as no surprise, then, to discover that Raleigh, seeing the popularity of the Schwinn Stingray, and in unison with every other company selling bikes in America, soon brought out a Stingray lookalike.”

I came across Schwinn earlier on this week in a similar context when reading the book ‘Fat Tire’. Schwinn also featured at the centre of the ‘Mountain Bike’ phenomenon when kids from Marin county rode customized bikes they made up of old Schwinn frames and ‘Balloon’ tyres they referred to as ‘Clunkers’ . This really comprehensive commentary on Clunkers by downhill pioneer and bike builder Alan Bonds documents the history of this invention.

“[...] all based on mild steel frames from the coaster brake one speed genre. Many were pre-war and some from the forties and fifties. Some of the riders considered the pre-war frames superior in quality and construction. The hybrid version of these bikes had upgraded stems, bars, seatposts, cranks, rims, seats, pedals and had drum brakes, gears, deraillers, shifters and brake levers added.”

Mountain Bikes may have been the last great innovation in Bike design. Before, kids contented themselves with modifying Bikes, these days it’s all about hacking your Wii.