Originally published at: A fully operational bicycle with square wheels | Boing Boing
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Das Panzerfahrrad!
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To save a boring six minutes: the program itself starts two minutes in, after the commercial. This is followed by an endless series of “building it” closeups. The payoff, the bike itself and how it works, is only seen in the last thirty seconds of the video.
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This bicycle has two inch wheels, as isn’t apparent from looking at it until you check out the sprockets at each corner of the squares. There’s a reason that it’s shown running over perfectly smooth surfaces only. A twig would stop it dead.
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I don’t mind build videos but the format this one was done in wasn’t interesting at all, seems like a wasted opportunity (i skipped through all the BS and i suspect everyone else did too). The bike itself seems like a fun concept though
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I thought they were actually going to make the wheels rotate, and I was ready to be in pain, watching it. Of course, you can have rotating square wheels, you’re just restricted to very particular roadways…
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My first thought was “tracks, not wheels”, which was correct, but the effect was pretty cool (after scrubbing through 90% of it).
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The spokes make it look neato, but are a total waste of time. One thick metal spoke might weigh less, would be a lot easier to build, and would perform just as well. Still, a pretty cool art piece !
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Cool invention, most annoying possible presentation. Others have explained it already but for anyone skipping to the end of comments, the wheels look like they couldn’t possibly fit through the bike frame because they can’t- they don’t rotate, the “tire” rotates around them like a tank tread.
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Skipped to the last thirty seconds and still felt cheated, but thanks for saving me from the rest of that video.
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How do the brakes work?
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Oh! I was just coming here to post this. The national museum of mathematics is amazing!
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The concept of a Kubelwagen bike is fun tho. It just needs a round front wheel and a trapezoidal rear track. That would be much more interesting.
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Pretty sure if you stop pedalling something that inefficient, you come to a decently rapid halt.
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Exactly. So much for “A fully operational bicycle”. I’d also guess that cornering is disastrous.
But it is an interesting bicycle-shaped object.
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*The only drawbacks are that curbs and anything taller than 5mm cannot be traversed by this bicycle.
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Neat, but I bet that is a PITA and a real work out to pedal with all that drag of all those spokes. Go about a 100 feet and I bet you will be “good”. “I tried it, I want to quit now.” Can it even coast down a hill?
Still, looks neat.
Somebody has reinvented the wheel.
Humanity is saved!
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fully operational
I think not. At least this guy did something workable:
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