Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
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Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
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Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#2I want to see the hinge that allows the front wheel fold up close. looks like a potential weak point.
I wonder how much he spent making the prototype.
Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#3I want to see the hinge that allows the front wheel fold up close. looks like a potential weak point. I wonder how much he spent making the prototype.
Fold up bikes are a great concept. There is one 'but' though, they are not nearly as robust as a regular bike and hopping a curbstone or a pothole can have serious consequences.
The pedals are usually a little lower over the road surface than on regular bikes and the wheels are small. They are also less rigid.
When I was a kid I would ride a fold up bike to school every day, for two years without incident, then one day one of the hinges suddenly gave way. It's very surprising to find yourself on two half bikes in the middle of a busy city intersection!
Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#4Folding bikes are nothing new, but if he's right about this one being able to 'take punishment', I'd buy one. My current folding bike is handy for taking on the T, but besides that, I call it the clown bike because of how it looks and how it handles.
Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#5I want to see the hinge that allows the front wheel fold up close. looks like a potential weak point. I wonder how much he spent making the prototype.
Fold up bikes are a great concept. There is one 'but' though, they are not nearly as robust as a regular bike and hopping a curbstone or a pothole can have serious consequences. The pedals are usually a little lower over the road surface than on regular bikes and the wheels are small. They are also less rigid. When I was a kid I would ride a fold up bike to school every day, for two years without incident, then one d…
I had a Strida in London. It seemed like one of the best-designed folding bikes around: kevlar belt (instead of a greasy chain), folding and unfolding an A-frame bike took literally 10 seconds.
But here's the catch: the tires are all really small, so it's much trickier to balance, and it's much less comfortable than a full-size bike.
Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#6Really slick... I especially like that you can wheel the whole package around while it's folded up. It looks like the chain is somehow internal to the frame?
Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#7Looks like it has too many points of failure i.e. the design ultimately sacrifcies rigidity and strength for convenience. Bicycles have to be extremely strong, or this happens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe6KqdJndcU
I'll stick to my dawes 531 tourer and the train nazis thank you :)
Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#8[deleted]
Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#9He doesn't have a chain connecting the pedals to the rear tire so its not really functional. Check out the video - he never pedals, and when he folds it you can see there is no chain.
You can't have a joint that changes the geometry between the rear hub and the pedals. On this bike there is a hinge and they end up being next to each other. On current folding bikes the hinge is forward of the pedals - the locking mechanism is usually the weak point, spend time improving that.
Re: Inventor's Bike Folds Into Its Own Wheel
#10I did not see him pedling at all, deal breaker if it's just a scooter. Looks like a prototype that will never get further, the cost for that many high quality hinges will put the manufacturing price way past a reasonable price point.