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About Karta Healy
I was born to American Sikh minister parents in 1974. After 10 years of boarding schools in various countries I went straight to London to study at European Business School. As it had all the same mix of kids from all over that I grew up with, I felt immediately at home. I managed to bring my favourite bikes over piece by piece (to avoid the surcharge on the airline). And then my bike got stolen, and the next one, and next one. As it seemed motorbikes might be harder to steal, I got myself a '52 Triton Café Racer. I finished my first degree and did a new subject entirely, Sustainable Design at Central St Martins in London. I put myself up for an apprenticeship to design classic British Motorbike tailoring, cut in modern ski fabrics. Three years of a biker's dream was initiated by none other than Nick Ashley who taught me the dirty art of riding off road, and much much more. Our time in Japan, designing for the 10 shops he had there, gave me experience needed. I ended up commuting to St Martin's on a bike I built up with a rusty tractor seat and a chrome tank, to study industrial design. I found myself bombarded by projects to design cars, as sponsored by car companies. I spent the bulk of my time, urging the staff to get us commissions for more relevant vehicles to our life in a city. In the end, my thesis was an over filled catalog of all the potential companies to approach, with Urban Vehicles on offer. Thus began my official love affair with all things clean and/or quick, in the city. I called it A>>B (www.AgotoB.com). Quickest ways to get yourself from point A to point B in any city. The more I worked on the subject, the more I felt the need to speak up on the absurdity of our congested and polluted cities. I became an advocate of sustainable cities, as I believe the vehicles are a key component of any cities' success or failure. The project now remains vocal through T-shirts through to TV documentaries on the subject. After having exhausted my study of all vehicles clean and quick I settled back on designing the ultimate urban vehicle, the bicycle. My brand OO (www.TWOnFRO.com) focused on outfitting the urban cyclist with all the essentials needed from head to toe and from wheel to wheel. Also www.HeloVelo.com became a new brand for my smaller city bikes. I have also been designing for others and curating shows around my two areas of interest, creative recycling and alternative vehicles.
Karta Healy's posts:
28-Jun 07:00
My small wheels are finally gaining momentum…
My other brand HeloVelo (love in the middle) is focused on little bikes for the big city. I have now started to get the prototypes ready for production which is very exciting as it means that not only will I have my ultimate bikes to choose from daily, but [...]
21-Jun 08:00
As I continued my return trip back to Asia, still seeing so much evidence of the bikes’ rise in people eyes. The message is evident globally. “Sustainability” and “eco” are buzzwords in every language.
From Bangkok airport ads by HSBC:
To Shenzhen, with cycling cults that ride around on bikes with no brakes:
Two wheels are truly the [...]
14-Jun 09:09
The hope did not stop as I progressed north into Europe. Went through Amsterdam, as usual the bikes and boats working in unison, they never know how good they have it. When I spoke to friends’ there about the bicycle culture, and how other cities need to emulate them, they jokingly said, “Why don’t people [...]
07-Jun 09:10
From the moment I landed in London, hope for a greener future was clearly in the air as I could see the trend of riding of bicycles blossom across town.
Everyone rode a bike; from my London BMX gang on our midnight ride, to the colourful bikes my friends are building up in tribute to spring, [...]
31-May 12:38
I have a confession to make, I did my annual rally www.gumball3000.com without even a hint of green effort this year. I usually take it upon myself to bang on the green drum amidst my petrol head friends.
They agree with me, however the temptation of a ride in a dream car with a best friend [...]
04-May 16:22
My cycling brand TWOnFRO.com sponsors this fine ride (pictured above) in London. The event called Tweed Run (www.tweedrun.com) would be best described as elegance over exertion, style over speed. In reality, it is a day gathering of 400 likeminded cyclists who will tour the city and take tea on the trot.
The event salutes the bygone [...]
29-Apr 19:27
Before my trip to Myanmar, I was exceptionally hesitant about going and found myself debating the pros and cons of going to visit this unfortunate country. However, returning from the trip, my impression has quite radically changed.
It seems that humans do not need MTV, PSPs, iPhones or any other technologically-forward gadget to be content. The [...]
22-Apr 16:09
Riding on your own bicycle in a foreign country makes for a very satisfying experience as it suddenly makes everything seem familiar. You are able to escape the tourist traps and keep your own momentum when traveling, and it provides the opportunity to get an insight into the lives of locals and relate better to your [...]
12-Mar 16:14
With solar becoming the new oil industry, I thought I would highlight a new breakthrough that I discovered recently. Solar power towers have proven to be a fairly efficient way of converting solar energy into electricity. In a solar power tower, energy from a large array of mirrors focused onto a tower that captures the [...]
03-Mar 15:35
I was asked by the Biennale to curate all the bike activities at the first ever Critical Mass in China. On the final night of the event, we had a decent group of cyclers, and to entertain, a few bands played on the waterfront into the evening. Afterwards, the pack of us cyclers rode off [...]
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