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From Idea to Quirky Execution – Wingspan Bike Rack Gets its Wings

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Quirky Rack Product__Secondary_07-1

When Beda Angelo Pormentilla came up with the idea for a new style bike rack, he tried all the latest avenues to get the product from concept to fruition. After a failed Kickstarter, and attempting to partner up with a friend, Beda tried a new route – partnering with invention company Quirky. Instead of their prevalent iPhone and kitchen accessories along with other gadgets, Quirky took on the design of the Wingz bike rack and turned it into the Wingspan rack shown above. Thanks to the expanding arms, the rack can hold large, bulky items and still fold down when not in use.

Quirky Winspan Product__Secondary_02

For Beda, the aha moment was when he was trying to bring groceries home in a milk crate on his bike. The crate wouldn’t fit on his bike rack, forcing him to carry the groceries home and leave the bike. The original design in the video below was quite a bit different but the general idea was the same – an expanding rack to accommodate large objects.

The Quirky method is pretty interesting with submitted ideas then being evaluated by the Quirky staff and community members to pick which products become a Quirky Invention. After it is chosen surveys are done to judge the consumer’s response to the product, after which colors, materials, and finishes are chosen along with the name and other details. Eventually all of the carefully selected product attributes add up to final product that is then sold through their retail partners which include some big names like Target, Best Buy, and Amazon.

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AlanM
AlanM
10 years ago

Cool idea, but how much weight can it support since it’s seatpost mount? Seems a bit of an odd choice for a rack designed to carry larger items.

Rustydog
Rustydog
10 years ago

Neat idea. The wings give the support to loads that can be tricky to place and strap down. Pizza?
I suspect it has the typical 20lb rating for a post mount.

Scott
Scott
10 years ago

I’m with AlanM. That thing looks like something designed by a company that doesn’t design bike products. Even on a steel bike I would worry about the stress on the seat cluster.

Kark
Kark
10 years ago

Rustydog nails it. that thing is just made for pizza. (could be that lunch time is creating a bias tho)

Ck
Ck
10 years ago

As others have said, this doesn’t fix what I consider the biggest negative to racks mounted on the seatpost; low weight limits.

WheezerMF
WheezerMF
10 years ago

I agree re: seatpost racks’ weight limit. This would be -so- much more useful as a frame-mounted rack. Or, as an attachment to mount on top of the frame rack of choice.

Champs
Champs
10 years ago

Of course it’s a lousy idea, but since when have cheap and easy-to-install bike accessories been subject to questions like “does it actually work?”

Dockboy
Dockboy
10 years ago

I can’t wait until I’m delivering a too-big-for-a-rear-rack item and it swings around and takes out my knees and throws out my balance.

ACE
ACE
10 years ago

I think its great that someone is thinking about making seat post racks even more useful .I have used seat post racks for several years and what they lack in weight capacity they excel in not making clanking noises over every bump or shearing bolts into your frame.

uglyyeti
uglyyeti
10 years ago

I can see the WIN in this thing – great work Beda. To those poo-pooing it because it’s a seatpost rack need to realize that it’s solved a big problem of racks, just not the core problem of being a seatpost rack.

It isn’t going to carry your 32″ Trinitron tube tv, your twin mattress set or your little sister because it’s still a seatpost rack. But it will carry a pizza box, takeout containers, a 12-box of bottled cold ones and all of the other little wide things that you wish you could carry on a quick and dirty seatpost rack but you can’t because they tip over. Is what it is and it’s much better than what we can get now. Progress.

JimmyZ
JimmyZ
10 years ago

I was one of the unenlightened, poo pooing your rack. Then I threw my ugly panniers out the window. Now that I have raised the center of gravity on my bike, my biceps are huge from fighting my bike’s new tendency to lay down due to the poor weight distribution.

uglyyeti
uglyyeti
10 years ago

@jimmyZ- First off, it’s not my rack – I’m just boggled that everyone on here is poo-pooing it because it hasn’t totally revolutionized load distribution on a bike or exceeded the carrying capacity of a half ton truck. It’s not a replacement for panniers. It’s apparently a vastly improved seatpost rack, so it still has some of the inherent drawbacks of being a seatpost rack, but for someone that wants or needs to use one, it solves a huge problem.

If having a pizza or takeout container 2′ above your rear axle is tipping you over, it’s probably not a good solution for you. You can still carry your pizza in your panniers. Order the toppings on one half and load that side up – should be all good by the time you get home.

I totally agree with you – panniers are ugly. So are seatpost racks.

Congrats on your huge biceps. Chicks dig that more than panniers.

jimmythefly
jimmythefly
10 years ago

Yeah, this is actually a pretty good design, which is saying something considering most of the designerbro stuff that pops up.

It actually addresses a pretty common problem -that of wanting a narrow low profile rack most of the time, but in certain cases wanting to carry something large and flat (pizza, sketchbook, yoga mat, picnic basket, whatever).

I think it works perfectly as a seatpost rack, both in terms of load capacity and in terms of the types of rider I typically see with post racks and what they use them for.

Sure, for serious heavy hauling a frame mounted rack is better, but this isn’t for heavy hauling.

JimmyZ
JimmyZ
10 years ago

No, I’m really that poor at balancing. I think full suspension compensates for that, though. The only problem is that when I have a U lock bouncing around in the trunk of my seatpost mounted bag, it feels like somebody is grabbing the seatpost in an attempt to knock me down. Also, I can’t eat any Italian food, I am allergic to garlic, so the only capacity in which i would be carrying a pizza is if I had to get a job delivering them. Nobody wants to eat a pizza that was delivered to them with chamois drippings on it from the ride there.

tomana
tomana
10 years ago

great idea, can’t wait until it’s available. I hope it will not cost too much though … $25 or less hopefully

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