A new take on balance bikes
Parents will be all too familiar with the short lifespan of children’s products. Most families will collect a garage full of toys before a child even starts school. The Velo Twista is an innovative 2-in-1 training bike combining the functionality of both tricycle and balance bike, thereupon eliminating the need for replacement or upgrade as the child develops.
The idea of a bike that grows with the child came from careful user insights as well as our belief in socially responsible design. Twista is our contribution towards reducing this clutter and also reducing the cost to parents and the planet.
By combining the functionality of a tricycle and balance bike, Twista is designed to suit children from approximately 18 months to 5 years old, a colossal span relative to a child’s physical and spatial development. In doing so, Twista could replace up to three different ride-on toys that children might otherwise have in that period.
Conceived and developed by Cobalt, we partnered with Yvolution to manufacture and globally distribute the bike. Twista is currently sold worldwide and in major toy stores such as Toys”R”Us.
2015 Premier's Design Award Finalist
The Team We believe good design happens by expert people working as a team.
Jack Magree
Warwick Brown
Graeme Marshall
Andrew Beard
Andrew Fanning
Rob Cuzner
Nat Hunt
Sebastian Funke-Kupper
James Hayes
Mario Matkovich
Mechanical Party Trick
Experts universally acknowledge that balance bikes help children learn to ride pedal-powered bikes more quickly and safely than using traditional training wheels. Velo Twista extends this concept to include children that are too young to balance on two wheels through clever design.
The heart of Twista’s innovation is the rear wheel hub that easily toggles between tricycle and balance bike modes. In tricycle mode, the rear wheels can separate to provide extra stability. As the child advances, a simple ‘twist and click’ mechanism brings the wheels together to easily become a balance bike.
Conscious decisions were made throughout the design process to make the end product both environmentally and financially sustainable. The main idea of adaptability to match growing kids was a starting point, but we quickly realised that a product that grows with the user as they develop also needs to be sufficiently durable as well as engaging for years of heavy-duty play.
Using Industrial design, prototyping, animation and mechanical engineering, the Velo Twista was a company-wide project spanning nearly two years. Many of our team contributed to the project during its development from concept sketches through to co-ordinating production samples.
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