September
5, 2003
Gamil's
"BatCage" Wins Tour de France!
Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service Team rode to victory with
equipment designed by Gamil Design. Created for Trek Bicycle, the
BatCage is a water bottle holder made from composite materials that
provides superior performance.
It's
essential for cyclists to carry water with them as they ride, but
they also want the lightest equipment they can carry. As a result,
several designers have devoted a lot of energy into optimizing the
essential water bottle cage.
"We
used nice materials which allowed us to strip some weight from the
product," says Aly Khalifa, co-owner of the local design firm
that specializes in performance equipment. "More importantly
we gained insight on key elements to how a water bottle can be ejected
from a cage. As a result, we designed it to hold on better to the
bottle without making the cyclist fight to get his bottle in and out
of it."
This
type of sensitivity to the user's requirements made it an attractive
choice for the USPS team. Khalifa notes that this was not Gamil's
only notable achievement in the project, however. "By engineering
it for exceptional production efficiency, we reduced the cost of manufacture
considerably." With the amount of high-end exposure it has received
along with the volume of its sales, it has shown that successful design
is good for business.
