This bicycle is for fun, not for efficiency.

1. Amputees often use a special prosthesis for sports; a springy, hard but flexible polypropylene or carbon 'leg'

2. This allows them to run very very fast, easily breaking the world record for sprints of 100 and 200m.

3. A similar type of leg-system is used by one of the fastest and most robust running robots based on biomimetic principles - many insects use springs for legs [link, especially the video is nice]

4. The 'Insect bicycle' [see illustration] is inspired by both:

-the wheels are entirely made up of strong but flexible 'legs'

-you would ride the bicycle as a normal bike, but for start-stop manoeuvres you would jump to get a spring effect after which you can overcome the first bit of rolling resistance

-the design also opens new perspectives for foldable bicycles; as can be seen in the illustration [top right corner], the spokes can be folded up; and so the biggest problem of foldable bicycles is solved, because wheels can not be folded up

-could be a neat bicycle for cross-country fun!!

That's it.
-- django, Jun 23 2007

The bicycle http://i3.photobuck...e1.jpg?t=1182622437
Note the foldable legs in the top right of the pic [django, Jun 23 2007]

Athletes with this prosthesis are very fast http://www.spectrum.../images/prosf1a.jpg
They easily beat Justin Gatlin or Frankie Fredericks [django, Jun 23 2007]

The Rhex - hexapod http://www.martinbu...r.net/projects.html
Check bottom left for a nice video, especially near the end you see it running fast [django, Jun 24 2007]

More Rhex, based on the cockroach http://images.googl...&btnG=Search+Images
Nice insect, very flexible, very fast [django, Jun 24 2007]

Pistorius beats most sprinters http://news.bbc.co..../europe/6898504.stm
Pistorius needs a time of 45.95 to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan, in August. [django, Jul 26 2007]

The flexible legs provide an active suspension system, making this a good mountian bike, especially if the feet are shod with rock climbing shoes.
-- nuclear hobo, Jun 23 2007


Anyone seen the sprinter with the bionic legs finishing second in the 400m finals in Rome? He ran the race for non-amputees. Very impressive! [link].
-- django, Jul 26 2007


Very slick picture once again, [django]. I like the picture and the concept. This might offer advantages over a conventional wheel for rough terrain.
-- bungston, Jul 27 2007


Dude, you just re-invented the wheel!
-- cowtamer, Jul 27 2007


You'd probably want to tune the oscillations of each spoke to give you a maximum jump depending on how fast you're going. Or you could go with something loopier and have a 4-"wheeled" bicycle where each "wheel" is comprised of three mechanically actuated prosthetic leg-like things arranged at 120 degrees to each other.
-- cowtamer, Jul 27 2007


I was thinking about this bike. It might be better to make these legs as protrusions from a small, solid internal wheel. I was thinking that you could do this with a only a hemisphere of legs - as the back leg on a given wheel left contact with the ground a smaller internal wheel would swing it up and over so it would be the new front leg making contact with the ground.

The internal wheel screws up the foldability, though.
-- bungston, Jul 27 2007


What [bung] and [cowtamer] said. Nice graphics.
-- wagster, Jul 28 2007


Grey literature on rimless wheels, yummmm! Why not just go with a polygon that has an infinitely large 'n' value, and then make the springy material out of rubber?
-- quantum_flux, Jul 30 2007


This is awesome.

I could see meshing bimetalic strips within each flexible strut and using heat to propell it.

Just awesome...ok now who's going to re-invent fire?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 30 2007


I'll get on that, as soon as I can locate my eyebrows. They seem to have gone missing.
-- shapu, Jul 30 2007


Lol [Beep], what graphics program do you use?
-- django, Jul 30 2007


wow!! that's great artwork [django]
-- pashute, Sep 07 2023



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