Knister Grill: A Handlebar-Mounted Barbecue for Any Bike
The warm weather is encouraging all of us to get out of our homes and take part in the festivities summer has to offer. Things like picnic lunches with friends, biking around town, and barbecue season are on most of our minds.
Barbecuing in particular has a special way of bringing friends and families together, although it does restrict us to our backyards or the nearest park. This can be blamed on the excessive weight and size that the typical barbecue has to offer. But what if we were able to place a barbecue on a bike and take it anywhere? Lucky for us, a Kickstarter campaign has just brought this idea to life.
German entrepreneur Carolin Kunert has created a bike accessory that can be easily transported anywhere you want. Knister Grill is an extendable charcoal barbecue that’s meant to be mounted onto the handlebars of your bike. The mount fits any bike, is tool-free, and can be quickly removed when not in use. If you don’t feel like riding your bike or simply don’t have one, you’ll be happy to hear that the barbecue’s legs double as handles, allowing you to just carry it around with you. Once you reach your destination, you’ll have the choice of using the grill in its collapsed form (26 x 30 cm) or extending it to nearly twice its traveling size (26 x 49 cm).
Knister encourages its users to store their uncooked food and utensils inside of the barbecue. This makes transporting your grilling necessities extremely simple. While the thought of placing food on top of leftover grilling residue may alarm you, Kunert worked hard to make sure her product was cleaning friendly. Open up your Knister Grill to wash it by hand, or just place it in the dishwasher.
“I first developed a transportable barbecue in the third semester of my industrial design studies in Munich,” Kunert explains. “Back then, it was super-heavy and mounted on the bike rack — I wasn’t able to use it because I had a basket on my bike. In November 2017, during my Erasmus semester, I continued the project intensively, won the competition ‘Startup Weekend,’ and created the first prototypes. I created a team behind Knister Grill and developed the product to get it into serial production.”
You’ll only have to wait a few minutes for the Knister Grill to cool down before heading home. The strategic placement of the barbecue on the bike was designed to prevent any dust or coal from flying into your face while you cycle. This is further prevented by having the two racks slide over one another as it closes.
“There are already small, high-end camping products and transportable barbecues on the market,” Kunert admits. “We don’t exactly compete with them. We offer a lifestyle product, where the spontaneous ‘barbecue-with-friends’ is the most important thing.”
The Knister original is available at the early-bird price of $135, while a customized model will run you $200 (or more). When all is said and done, the retail price is expected to be $250. Check out the Knister crowdfunding page for more information.
