Australian-born musician David Osbourne has a love for the drums but without a car or even his own kit, David found himself in his new hometown of London in need of a solution. One day back in 2008, with a sketchbook in a park, David redesigned his bike to be both a transport system and the ultimate drum kit. Puncture Kit was born.

all media via Puncture Kit

Guerilla stencil artists are on the loose…and they’re promoting urban biking. Sometimes guerrilla work isn’t drawn by artists at all, just concerned people trying to make a statement. The GBL, Guerrilla Bike Lane, even made a video of their nighttime artistic installation. They even used a bike to help with the painting. In the middle of the night, on Monday, July the 26th (or more correctly, the morning of the 27th) a group of activist artists made a bold statement on the streets of Baltimore. They left behind a bike lane, stencil art, and their manifesto which reads:

“The Guerrilla Bike Lane arose from a desire to express ourselves and our passion for an escalating need to reduce the use of fossil fuels. We seek to promote and establish fair and safe riding conditions for cyclists in Baltimore. The intention of our guerrilla artwork is to educate the public using environmentally friendly and creative means in a non-aggressive way. We hope this will serve as a catalyst for people to see and build the community within the city, to consciously take action instead of settling for an inactive way of life.”

After years of cycling associations begging for bike lanes on the bridges and access roads in Lyon, France only to be ignored, Velorution decided to take the paintbrush into their own hands. The group decided to paint bike symbols at key locations to get their point across.

And it works, the cars leave a lane open for cyclists and the groups can ride safely over the bridge.

Some artists take their art into the comedic realm, like these stencils found on the streets in Adelaide, Australia.

The Urban Repair Squad out of Toronto promotes biking and has made it their mission, “To encourage bicycling as an antidote to the poison that is car culture. To actively construct a positive future of what urban transportation could be by installing it NOW. ”

images via carltonreid, Urban Repair Squad, Velorution

My office recently bought a couple nifty Brompton fold-up bikes for the staff which are pretty cool but what about a bending bike that becomes it’s own lock? We’ll just put aside the thought of what might happen should you take a spill. Some text from Design Boom:

Design student kevin scott designed this unusual bending bike that not only folds up tightly but can be used to locks itself up. The de montfort university industrial design student designed the bike to make its safer and easier to lock up your bike in the city. His design looks like a normal bike when in riding mode, but a simple level on the frame triggers the frame to go from rigid to pliable. A ratchet system built into the frame enables the bike to simple be bent around a pole fitting one side of the handle bar into a closure under the seat, locking the bike in place. The design just won runner-up for the business design centre new designer of the year award at new designers. Scott will be using his prize money to further develop the bike, building more iterations for a full testing of its viability.

images via Design Boom