It’s that time again – inspired designers everywhere are trying to re-invent the trusted old bicycle and not a day goes by without strange things appearing in my inbox, proclaiming to be the best ever solution to an age-old problem: how to propel one human forward on two wheels only.

Latest contenders in the strange-looking bike category (which is what I have chosen to call this area, others would probably be a little more forgiving and call it bike design.. but then, some things really make you wonder whether it is really design or someone just going bonkers with 3D software..) is the Discovery bike by Eric So of Taiwan, featured at the International Bicycle Design competition.

This diamond-shaped frame is actually quite elegant, but currently I have no idea of the size as it looks like the stand-over height is pretty tall. Still neat though so a big hand to Eric for pushing our imagination to think of new alternatives to the tried and tested bicycle.

So the strangest ever then? Has to be the Dreamwing which seems to be strange marriage between a kind of see-saw mechanism, powering a surf-board that you steer with rope.. Sounds mental and perhaps not as mad as you might think, bearing in mind the Trikke, which also managed to re-invent a way of propelling us forward by introducing carving. That seems way more stable than this though so awaiting someone to have a go at a full-size prototype!