VALUE - LED
2025 CAPSTONE - UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER
INTRO
ONRA began as a value-led capstone project, tasking me with identifying a personal design value and developing a product that reflects it. Through rapid ideation, iterative prototyping, and refined fabrication, I created a snap-on bike guard system that protects, personalizes, and redefines the relationship between rider and gear.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we increase the life of a piece of outdoor gear by designing a protective and personalized product?
WHY ONRA
Shift the user's mindset to value protection over replacement
Adds style and function—custom attachment/mounts, personal expression.
Builds a deeper connection between the rider and gear.
SKILLS LEARNED
Surface Modeling
Visual communication/brand storytelling
Ideation/rapid prototyping
User testing
PROCESS
IDEATION
How does it attach to the bike?
What utility does it have ?
How does it protect the bike?
IDENTIFY VALUE SPACES
RAPID PROTOTYPING
What does the form look like?
FINAL BUILD
ONRA protects the most vulnerable areas of a mountain bike, helping prevent scratches and reduce the risk of carbon cracking. Alongside essential protection, it adds self-expression to the bike’s look—shifting riders’ mindset from constantly chasing new gear to valuing and protecting what they already own.
1.
VULNERABLE SPOTS
The downtube, rear triangle, and fork are the bike’s most impact-prone areas—often the first to hit in a crash and the most likely to suffer damage or frame cracks.
In an industry driven by the constant need for new gear, ONRA challenges that mindset by encouraging care, preservation, and protection to extend the life of what we already own—protecting the bike from the worst-case scenarios, large impacts.
2.
PROTECTION
ONRA has the potential to become a new system for attaching tools and gear directly to the bike. The current design includes mounting bolts on the fork piece for a water bottle cage, while the handlebar piece can securely hold a pair of glasses, opening the door for even more functional add-ons.
3.
UTILITY
Style is central to ONRA design—like jewelry for your bike, it reflects the rider’s personality. In the future a database of bike models and user-provided keywords, ONRA can generate custom-fit, modular parts through modeling software. This system allows for personalization at scale, creating a deeper connection between rider and gear while extending the product’s life.
