05

New Year. Whilst I don't intend to set New Years' Resolutions for this project, I am going to outline what I have done and what my next steps are going to be.

I have:

> Established my area of interest and focus: women's specific mountain bike components

> Established some initial contacts: Manon Carpenter, Georgia Gould, Micayla Gatto, Caz Rands, Diana Brucclieri and Trish Bromley (Diana and Trish along with fellow member of "Shegnarnigans" Erica Lawson are currently getting a lot of exposure on Pinkbike for their videos "The Girls" and "Causing a Ruckus")

> Determined product areas of interest based on initial contact responses: grips and saddle, but mainly pedals - there are women's specific shoes for a different shaped foot but nothing to connect that differently shaped foot to the bike. Women will also place different forces and stresses on a pedal that is essentially a lever, so the platform should be designed so as to accommodate this

> Began to think about style: I know that style is going to be important in the brand that I ultimately want to develop, and I have determined what I do not want in terms of style, but have not yet pinpointed what I do want

My next steps are:

> To continue to receive and analyse general responses from riders

> To develop questionnaire to send to respondents

> To look at other extreme sports: skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing   to determine style and colour trends in women’s products

> Through more discussion with research respondents, determine which   products would be most beneficial to develop

> To start to research manufacturing processes of shortlisted products

> To begin to prototype to determine manufacturing feasibility

> To begin to think about brand names and identity