For our thesis project, we have have received a brief for designing a premium electrical bicycle, aimed for the users aged 18/30, defined with an analysis of their lifestyles, aspirations, activities and aesthetic choices. Looking into students’ interests, especially the international students's who are living in unfamiliar territories, experiences are preferred over products. Our aim is to create a new experience around E-bikes, that will evolve around social activity, encouraging to be part of community.

IED students come from all over the world for a unique educating experience, looking to expand their knowledge through traveling and adventures, bikes are becoming a new way to travel.

Keeping sustainability at the core of our project, we have decided on creating an immersive biking sharing experience rather than focusing own ownership:

“Nownership” motivates young people to use shared mobility, making it an affordable and sustainable way to commute, but limited for exploration.

Interviewing international students, we have noticed problems such as lack of independence revolving around sharing services in the city as well as the need of socializing, documenting memories and exploring in a unique way when it comes to traveling in a new city. Additionally, observing the hesitation and lack of interest on cycling with an e-bike in the city, we have understood that many young students feel scared when it comes to ride a bike alone in a city full of traffic and people. 

Combining all of these problems with a recognizable design language, we have creating Off Limits, a traveling experience beyond boarders. 

Off Limits is a service that motivates young people to ride an E-bike for the first time. 

We will achieve this by creating interconnected bikes that flourish the experience of riding in groups and will always encourage people to discover places together and create social connections that will last forever.

Off Limits offers a set of two bikes for travelers to explore with a new means of transportation. Our new addition to the biking service, the tandem bike, will accompany you in all your travels, not only providing you a safer and more connecting experience but also doubling the amount of fun of each travel.

Custom handlebars of Off Limits are designed with the same type-form, creating a strong identity for our service. By focusing on the core needs of young travelers, the four main commands of the handle revolves around the topics of safety and socialization. 

An adjustable phone holder is centred on the handles, allowing users to follow the navigations from the app easily as they ride. This process have been made easier with additional audio directions provided by the speaker. As the centered phone holder contains not only a speaker but a microphone as well, users can communicate with the walkie talkie command easily and clearly without putting themselves in danger in traffic.

Signal lights that are connected to the button located on the first handle will alert the other riders in traffic as well as the second rider through the additional light system located on the latter handle bar. 

There is no limit to how much you can carry when it comes to Off Limits bikes. Our bikes create a spacious yet safe storage unit to maximize the comfort of the trip.

Hooks that are made from recycled plastic are snapped into the top part of the bike frame, holding the personal and shopping bags of travellers to stay intact in bumpy rides. Keeping water close for active people, flexible bottle holders that are easily screwed to the bike frame will hold many different types of bottles and will keep your beverage in reach of your hand while cycling. 

Our bikes will wait for you in an Off Limits station nearby IED campuses, allowing students to explore their cities in a totally new perspective, as well as outer territories through customized tracks available in the Off Limits app, to discover the hidden, authentic cultures of each city. 

By collaborating with Vaimoo to get access to their innovative charging technology, Off Limits bikes will automatically connect through a frontal tire connection and start charging immediately in our stations.

The app of Off Limits will allow you to discover new cities around you through the creation of custom tracks; our users will have a chance to join single or group rides, and to ride with their friends on tandem bikes. 

The Off Limits app contains an archive to keep your memories forever; as students travel though one location to another, they will unlock stamps that are designed for each location, creating a digital collection of their trips and their favorite locations visited. As our bikes contain a frontal camera, users can record short videos of their adventures and can have access to their memories to post online later on through the use of the Off Limits archive. 

Being the first sharing service that focuses on the needs of young travellers, every student will now feel as bold and independent as the bikes of Off Limits, going beyond borders. 

To allow students to hop on adventures with others with group rides and experience the culture and history of the Mediterranean culture by discovering the hidden gems of IED cities located in Italy. 

And to create memories with collected videos and digital stamps created for each unique location visited, that will last with you forever.