I knew I had forgotten to mention some stuff:

The seat is an adaptation of a moto-x style seat since people seem to find these bikes more approachable I thought it fit the design. Also I thought that this type of seat would be more versatile for a wider range of riders. I want to create a design that is people would feel comfortable commuting to work in during the week but then could also thrash around on a dirt track or some jumps on the weekend.

Also I thought that the bike in the video had an interesting target market/projected usage pattern. Check out this article http://www.gizmag.com/ktm-freeride-e-electric-motorcycle-specs/20482/ for more info

I have been experimenting with making my design less boxy over the last few days while retaining a clean simple look. So far I am quite liking this design with an exposed chamfered metal frame creating a boarder around the removable panel and then carrying the seat line through to create an inwards sloping surface on the side of the gas tank.

Also I quickly mocked up an advert for the side of the bike and lay it over my original marker drawing, it would have looked better had I rendered it all in photoshop but I think it gets the idea across.

 MASS UPLOAD!!!

I have been a bit slack getting round to this side of the project so I thought I would just upload a selection of sketches in chronological order.

As I mentioned in class my project centres around the use of interchangeable side panels to allow users to customise their bike. The big idea behind this is to allow owners to sell the side of their bike to advertising agencies in order to reduce the cost of bike ownership. From talking to both older and younger generations about the decline of bike ownership nearly everyone sighted the cost of a big as the biggest deterrent, the older guys say it is a lot more expensive to get into motorcycling now than it was when they started.

On top of this my research showed that 80% of Gen Z kids thought that advertising was cool and actually added value to a product.

In terms of the riders experience of the bike I wanted to create something simple and approachable, so I have focused on creating a design out of clean simple shapes to stay away from the aggressive look that is associated with motorcycle design. As part of this I have endeavoured to hide as many of the mechanical components as possible, however, due to the interchanging sides I expect to have a semi naked option aswell.

Ideas I have been working through my head but yet to put on paper are:

• Smart phone to be used as the instrument cluster, this could allow custom clusters and designs. The rider could also use the GPS feature in their phone.
• Checked in. Stemming from Facebook's "check in" feature I thought a way of putting parents minds at rest would be to have an automatic check in feature operated through the same software that is running the instrument cluster on their phone. Whenever the bike is turned on or off a notification could be sent to the riders parents letting them know where they are or that they have arrived at their destination. This could also be used by advertising agencies for fleet tracking.
• Storage, I am still undecided as to what extent storage should be integrated into the bike and how much they need. Obviously it is a big advantage if you don't have to carry your helmet around with you all day at uni.

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything, probably have though.