I’ve always been intrigued and amazed by the idea of Mamachari bicycles from Japan that can be used as grocery carriers, kid transporters, or riding to work with all your gadgets. Virtually every family in the land of the rising sun owns or has owned a Mama’s Chariot.
The unisex bicycle has proven itself as a age-old solution to city commuting and the Mama bike is not going to dwindle in popularity any time soon. Not when you see outlandish inspirations like the Homo Mobilitas pictured here. The reimagined bicycle has a chair as the saddle. Yes, a chair to either go riding on the streets or relax being parked by the side of a breezy pavement to catch some air.
Designer: Takuto Ohta
The body of this unique bicycle is the Furakazu Shushu model from Maruishi Cycle which is popular in Japan as the first kids-carrying solution in the country. While the famous ride is not safe by any stretch of the imagination, it still solves the purpose if you keep all your senses in overdrive. The axis of the front handle takes all the weight and the clever mechanism links the stand to the front fork to lower the center of gravity to stabilize the bicycle. Takuto’s idea is to debunk the safety norms and address gender biases by transforming how we look and interact with bicycles.
By fusing a chair design with a bicycle, the designer wants to reinterpret how we see our relationship with everyday objects. The motivation to create this design is to see bicycles not just as a mode of transportation but also as an important part of our living environment. Thus, a bicycle with not two chairs, but three. How practical would it be to drive a bicycle with three chairs holding the weight of adults, I’m not too sure. One thing is clear though, this creation will have eyeballs turning in Japan.
