Inflatable Electric Bikes Are the Ultimate in Portability

Do a quick search for foldable bikes and you’ll see that there is a huge market for them. Bicycles are a fantastic way to get around urban areas, but they’re difficult to store or transport the rest of the time. Foldable bikes can be small enough to fit in a backpack — albeit a large one. There are even foldable electric bikes. But they are all still quite heavy, because there isn’t anything you can do about the steel tube frames most bikes have. At least that was the case until this inflatable electric bike came along.

Called “Poimo” (POrtable and Inflatable MObility), this foldable electric bike was developed by engineers from the University of Tokyo and Japanese corporate partners. That bike is just one example of the work they’ve done, which is focused on creating strong and stable inflatable structures. In addition to the portability that an inflatable electric bike like this would offer, it’s also safer. In collisions between cars and cyclists, the bicycle itself often does a lot of harm to the cyclist. Modern cars are designed with pedestrian safety in mind, but bicycles are generally just designed for strength and performance. Riding what is essentially a big air bag could prevent injuries in collisions.

The structure of Poimo is a special TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) fabric that is strong, yet flexible enough to be folded for storage. Many different structures types are possible to fabricate and they retain their shape thanks to internal drop stitching that connects opposing flat surfaces together. In the case of the bicycle, steering is facilitated by a seam just behind the handlebars that provides just enough flexibility to turn the front wheel slightly. Because this is an electric bike, bulky pedals and chains aren’t necessary. That further increases the portability. The downside, of course, is that you would have to take the time to inflate the bike whenever you wanted to ride it.