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Più di Pegoretti: Milan Offers Bike Accessories That Surprise

Milan Design Week is almost here and a few projects have already caught our eye(s). One noteworthy collection is Più di Pegoretti, the outcome of a partnership between the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design and certified-legendary bike builder Dario Pegoretti. Working together for weeks, Pegoretti lent his fine-tuned mechanical knowhow and elegant minimalism to the students’ creative process in designing bike accessories. Guided by Professor Hans-Georg Pospischil and in cooperation with Pegoretti’s manufacturer Rossignoli, the resulting work is graphic and fun.

Among the fifteen final projects are some classic design student “solutions” like a fancifully-incorporated low-security bike lock, a textured seat that would destroy your pants, and a highly conceptual windbreaker. But there are a handful of intriguing ideas as well.

The first to grab my attention was a set of LED bike lights that use soft nylon mesh as a large refractory body. The product video does literally nothing to clarify the lights’ proposed functions, but the material play and forms are undeniably fresh. A simple elastic attachment lets these things perch or hang like little lanterns (or lumpen flashlights) from bars, seats or seat posts. At 30 lumens they’re more cute than bright, but in a world where TruckNutz for bikes are a viable consumer item, that obviously doesn’t matter.

Another idea that prompted a double-take was the Tyvek “handlebar bag.” Yes, there are a ton of beautiful canvas and leather bar bags out there for you serious, gravelly, randonneuring type road riders, but this scratches a different itch. For weight weenies on the go, having an off-body spot big enough to hold a hoagie or extra layer, yet small (and light!) enough to stash in a jersey pocket is nice. I, for one, snack hard on rides, and often wish I didn’t need to get my food sweaty or cram it into a seat bag. Yes, this thing could act like an obnoxious air brake, and no, for some reason it doesn’t have any zip, clip or snap to keep your small precious stuff from catapulting into traffic when you hit a bump. This does offer blessedly little interference with brake levers and cables, super easy installation, and looks like it rolls up smaller than a bag of those addictive Clif Shot blocks.

The third project that made me stop and squint was this set of weirdly narrow pedals with a built-in(?) toe strap. I tend to think the pedals systems we’ve used for the last 40 years are fine. (Clip-in if you want more power, use toe cages if you don’t like clicky shoes, go plain and flat if anything being even lightly attached to your body gives you vapors.) But there’s always room for simplifying. The pedal is narrow enough to give your feet hot spots if you rode it for long, but this toe strap seems to function like a sprung band, or a plastic Power Grip strap, making for a decent fit with different types of shoes and allowing easy in and out. It’s an interesting start.

You’ll also find a slick reversible hi-viz jacket, a couple very cool bar tape prints, and an almost-cool bike stand that’s essentially a concrete block with one plastic corner. Someone should take that and give it a hardcore Design Object treatment.

The collection opening will be on April 13, and event information is available here. 

If you do check out the Più di Pegoretti website, be warned that the product videos are pointedly uninformative and aggressively atmospheric. If there’s anything that says Student Portfolio, it’s using your product as an unexplored background character in a series of moody music videos shot in the woods.

More from Core77’s coverage of Milan Design Week 2016!