The Hermansen e-bike tells the story of Danish designer Anders Hermansen’s life-long love for bikes and bike riding and reflects his characteristic design style that merges conceptual transparency, functional performance and minimalist aesthetics.
Working with Bang & Olufsen for more than 20 years was a great space to explore and develop unique design. Examples include Anders’ BeoPlay V1 TV, the BeoSound 5 music player, and the Earset 3i. The latter is a decade long B&O classic that stands the test every summer when worn by professional bike riders during races like Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
Bikes are a great part of Anders’ childhood memories: “As a child I had a lot of bikes. On average, I had at least ten bikes stored in our basement. In an infinity, I disassembled them, mixed the parts and components and reassembled them into new configurations that I found interesting or fun.”
In his professional career, the urge to design a bike has always been in play: “The appealing, yet difficult challenge has been to fundamentally rethink but also match the beautiful logic and performance of the classic diamond frame. I have tried many times without really having the feeling that I nailed it. Then a few years back, after becoming a parent for the second time, I thought it would be fun to design a bike for my family. This somehow gave me a new kind of spark. One morning when I started sketching with my 3-dimensional steel wire hand-sketching method, it suddenly happened in a matter of minutes. The ‘dots’ connected and I had the feeling that ‘yes, this is it!’ because the asymmetric frame unites a strict and static logic with a human organic expression in a way that feels just right”.”
The Hermansen e-bike story unfolds with our engaged group of co-owners comprising professional investor Tommy Petersen, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of cycling clothing company Pas Normal Studios; Bo Bjerggaard, Britt Bjerggaard and Morten Korsgaard who own Gallery Bo Bjerggaard, which represents celebrated artist such as Jonathan Meese, Georg Baselitz and Tal R; Lars Dyhr who is the founder of several creative agencies, Executive Creative Director of Design at Uncle Grey and co-head of Grey/Denmark; and Jørgen Permin of the law firm Permin & Tholstrup and former head of finance and chairman at Plesner.
The joint force of our team’s diverse professional backgrounds fuels our journey. And so does our common enthusiasm for bikes and bike riding which makes us see pedalling summits of the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Serra de Tramuntana as a vacation treat.