Biancaneve

Description

Prologue

AN HONDA CX500 from 1979, dismounted piece by piece, stripped to the bare metal, repaired and restored until the mechanics came back to its original reliability.
Right over it, a deep body and interface redesign to give a new essence to its shape, use and perception.

Chapter 1 – The Idea

What are the basics for a product to be considered a motorcycle?

Are you sure?
Try to think about it again.
Try to remove everything that is unnecessary.
What’s left?

Two wheels, an engine, and a way to ride it.

Why, if we think about it, has it to appear in our mind and thoughts exactly in the way we have always pictured it?
Isn’t there any other way to imagine it?

At the beginning of this journey, the possible result of our work wasn’t that important to us. What we were trying to define and master was the approach, the creative process and, while working on it, what gave us energy were the thousands of questions we kept raising.
Where the rest of world saw prerequisites, we saw opportunities.
We had no idea then but Biancaneve was already there.

Chapter 2 – The design process

Only after raising those thousands of questions, we started analyzing the possible solutions. We chose which questions needed answers, always keeping in mind what was necessary to classify our product as a motorbike.
A bike is a two-wheels vehicle that moves the user from a starting point to a destination.
• Usually the experience is thrilling because of its speed and its inborn feeling of danger. The rider usually describes the experience as a rush of freedom.
• When it’s parked, it’s a whole ‘nother story. And this is the story we decided to give a deeper voice to, the story that lets people interpretate a rider personality.
When a motorcycle it’s parked, there is
time to take a deep look at it. In that moment, a motorbike can tell you a lot about its rider.
A tourer motorbike indicates a person that loves traveling, adventure and nature; a street bike shows love for adrenaline, insane speed and precision; custom bikes show passion for handcraft and tailor made products but also the wish to be part of the bikers community.
Biancaneve, with its particular essence, is searching for people that can look at it when it’s parked and feel the connection it has with art, philosophy and all the other branches of knowledge, which we took inspiration from while designing it, seeking new directions.

Usually, the goal of a design process is starting from what we have now and do it better.
Do it in line with the period trends.
Sticking to what society says people need, try to be the best in as many as possible.
Be cool.

Our goal is:
Decide what is worth keeping and discard the rest.
Keep only the essence of what you want to communicate and do it simply.

Chapter 3 – The result

Biancaneve is our first answer.
It wants to be a sculpture to look at when it’s parked and give a smooth experience when ridden.
Nothing more, nothing less.

We designed the interaction, the way you open and access it, the essential and easy gesture of grabbing the rear and unveiling the seat. We designed its shape that seems to flow even if it’s still.

Restoring the mechanics just brought them back to their own sharpness.

The riding experience was already there in the CX500, what we did is optimizing the driving posture and just let our imagination draw the rest.

And there it is. Do you like it?