Turning Everyday Bike Problems into Practical Solutions: The Story of Bob Forgrave’s Flatbike

To an inventor, a commonly recurring problem is more than an inconvenience; it is an opportunity to change things for the better through creative reframing. That is the case with Flatbike, Inc., a company born from a simple storage challenge that inspired a set of thoughtful, user-focused design choices.

When Bob Forgrave, founder and President of Flatbike, switched back to biking after years of running for exercise left him with strained knees, he experienced firsthand some of the frustrations of trying to fit a large bike in a small space. In a house or garage, a parked bike is essentially a collection of awkward parts that stick out and impede traffic. But keeping a bike outside and out of the way shortens its usable lifespan and makes it more susceptible to theft.

The typical response to these routine inconveniences in bike storage and transportation is to accept them as part of the complete biking experience. But through creative reframing, Forgrave had an entirely different answer: make all bicycles flat on demand, with no tools. 

In fact, he started a company to do exactly that.

This strategy had its risks, as Forgrave admits. “First, there was the engineering challenge. Flattening a bike conveniently with no tools, without limiting riding performance, might not even be possible. And even with engineering success, there was the marketing challenge of getting the word out; not many people search the internet for ‘How do I flatten my bike?’”

Out of that creative exercise came two practical innovations. The first was a folding stem that turns the handlebars 90 degrees with a simple cam lever, like on many bike seat posts. Forgrave played a meaningful role in the development and refinement of this component, contributing insights and perspectives that helped shape its evolution over time.

The second innovation was a Flatbike patented invention–a removable pedal system that is attached to the bike with pinch-activated latch heads. Flatbike Pop-Off Pedals come off the bike in a pinch to save space, but stay on through rough riding because of redundant latching.  These products have also both passed the ISO-4210 destruction test suite and are available separately or together in a combined Flatten-Your-Bike kit.

Today, Forgrave looks around and sees opportunity everywhere. “Apartment renters who want to commute by bike, suburban families with a herd of mountain bikes in the garage, RVers who want secondary transportation–all that just got easier,” he says.

Even with the engineering problems solved, a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding behind them, and customers using Pop-Off Pedals in several countries, some of Flatbike’s biggest challenges remain ahead. Hundreds of customers enjoying portable adventure are only the beginning. The real success in scaling up will be in getting the word out that a common problem already has a proven solution, even if the way to search for it is not yet obvious.

While word of Flatbike’s innovations has spread and requests for direct sales have emerged from various countries, global distribution remains a major challenge for the small Northwest company. This will demand even more out-of-the-box thinking.

Ultimately, Flatbike’s evolution illustrates how attentive problem-solving rooted in personal experience can yield solutions that are both practical and widely relevant. By identifying everyday frictions and designing thoughtfully engineered fixes like the THINstem and Pop-Off Pedals, Forgrave has turned a storage inconvenience into innovations that help enhance the daily lives of cyclists around the world.