Urban Transport

The scooter gets a little rounder in the Cycon Circleboard

The scooter gets a little rounder in the Cycon Circleboard
The Cycon Circleboard puts a new spin on scooter design
The Cycon Circleboard puts a new spin on scooter design
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The Circleboard has a carving motion
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The Circleboard has a carving motion
The Cycon Circleboard puts a new spin on scooter design
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The Cycon Circleboard puts a new spin on scooter design
Three wheels and a two-piece, curved aluminum frame
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Three wheels and a two-piece, curved aluminum frame
The scooter is German-designed and Swiss-made
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The scooter is German-designed and Swiss-made
The Circleboard can also be folded for transport
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The Circleboard can also be folded for transport
Cycon says that the scooter is more stable than others
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Cycon says that the scooter is more stable than others
Three wheels and a two-piece, curved aluminum frame
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Three wheels and a two-piece, curved aluminum frame
The Circleboard looks the part
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The Circleboard looks the part
View gallery - 8 images

In designing a new scooter, Swiss company Cycon looked to a new geometrical form. Instead of basing the scooter on hard lines and angles, they made it circular. What follows is a scooter that promises to flow as smoothly standing still as it does while riding.

The frame of the Circleboard scooter looks similar to a cut-out third of a circle crafted from aluminum. The metal frame appears to be a single piece of metal, curving seamlessly from the handlebars through the deck area and undulating into a wave-like transition toward the rear wheel, but it's actually two separate pieces, allowing for folding. The deck is placed atop the lower frame and the design utilizes three 200-mm wheels.

As is clear by looking at it, the Circleboard's handlebars do not rotate like other scooters'. The two front wheels are mounted to internal hardware that assists in creating a carving effect when the rider leans his body. The rider leans into the turn with his feet and body, and the frame tilts, rotating the wheels and carving into turns. The result looks like a flowy, wide-turning ride that mimics the circular design.

"It's really a street-carving machine; it feels like surfing or snowboarding, just in the streets," Cycon's Gerald Engele told us.

A simple friction foot brake mounted over the rear wheel brings the scooter to a stop. Two wheel covers over the front wheels serve as fenders.

The curved design looks to make Circleboard rather large and cumbersome when folded when compared with other folding scooters. Engele told us that the pay-off is in creating a better, less rickety connection between the handlebars and deck.

"You will not feel any little play during driving like usually all other scooters have," Engele explained. "They always have a lot of play between handlebar and steering tube and between steering tube and deck, which leads to a very poor and low quality appearance and feeling. Our Circleboard feels like one single rigid frame."

The Circleboard looks the part
The Circleboard looks the part

The appearance definitely comes across as a sort of rideable artwork, and that curvy design is bound to create a feeling (or at least mental picture) of wave-like flow, even on cracked, uneven concrete.

The Circleboard was designed by German aircraft engineers and is hand-built in Switzerland, with 95 percent of its parts sourced from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. As that background suggests, the Circleboard is quite a bit more expensive than the average Razor, selling for €499 (approx. US$663 as of publishing).

Watch the Circleboard move below.

Source: Cycon

Are you ready...

View gallery - 8 images
6 comments
6 comments
The Skud
Sigh! Yet another, albeit folding, scooter fighting for a share of a limited market. Each one, like soap powders or corn flakes, is "THE BEST" and usually dearer than its rivals. They all suffer from the same problems ... they are lousy uphill, what can you carry on/with them (groceries, briefcase?) and trains and buses sooner or later will start charging you an extra ticket to cope with the clutter anything over a couple on board brings.
castle1925
Nice design, but the video presentation is non-functional. This new style of blackouts and closeups alienates me from the product immediately.
Come on, video guy, give us some lingering wide shots! Let the viewer decide where to look.
Jeffrey-the Barak
Deck too high, frame to low. It is tiring for the supporting leg to dip and squat in order to scoot from a high deck and the distance from the deck to the bottom of the circular frame is so great that there is insufficient ground clearance for normal pavement. It is pretty, but it is basically a redesigned Micro KickBoard except less usable.
Cycon
Thanks for all your comments, besides these posted ones we received a lot of interesting mails from potential partners around the world. Special thanks to Chris for this nice article.
@Skud: the project was not born based on market share strategies or any other business plan models. The shape just came to mind during a boring train drive some years ago. Just a simple sketch in the beginning it evolved from paper to a wooden proof-of-concept. Since it really looked great and was also cool to drive I decided to bring it to manufacturing which was pure fun to see my product being born.
If you have a chance to hold a Circelboard in your hands you will see what I mean with highest quality...it's not a false promise!
Cycon
Dear castle1925, I'm glad you like the scooter. Check this video for more wide shots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9mH6c1TQhM
Cheers Cycon
Cycon
Dear Jeffrey-the Barak:
Thanks for your hint, we took care of not placing the deck too high even though our design focus was not the lowest possible deck level. We approved the current design in several design loops and had more than 40 different people test driving the final shape with exclusively positive feedback. The big difference to other scooters on the market is that we are the only three-wheel scooter with 200mm tires. That leads to the fact that our Circleboard runs so easy that you don't need to push each second step. With our scooter you push once or twice and than cruise for 20-40m. That means it's even less tiring running it. The Micro Kick-Board btw has a total different steering system, although is comes with 3 wheels.
Cheers Cycon