If you’re familiar with the from back in April, wacky YouTuber The Q is back with yet another proposition – Forget square wheels… what if the bicycle had NO wheels?
The US-based YouTuber pulls out all the stops with his absurdly fascinating videos. He’s made the world’s smallest bicycle, a bicycle with 60 tennis balls for tires, and even one with split, semi-circular wheels. The great part about all his experiments is that as bizarre they may sound, they still work at the end of the day… and you get the pleasure of watching The Q build out the bicycle concepts throughout the video, just in case you want to build your own wacky mode of transportation too!
Designer:
While The Q’s bicycle doesn’t have wheels, it still relies on rotating elements that help push it forward. The bike comes with two sets of wheel belts, mounted at absurd angles to create one of the most attention-gripping silhouettes one could imagine. The way the Wheelless Bike works is sort of like a tank, with the rotating wheel belts driving you forward. Is it ‘technically correct’ to say that this bicycle doesn’t have wheels? No, because it does have rotating elements all across the board… but it ditches those large rubberized wheels that make up the iconic bicycle’s archetype.
Pedal away and the wheel belts rotate, carrying you forward. Don’t expect to hit high speeds, given how small the wheel belt’s curved radius is, but you can definitely expect a few curious stares and maybe a couple of questions from bewildered onlookers! Would I recommend riding this on rough terrain or a bumpy road? Probably not!
To build the wheelless bike, The Q found himself a bike frame sans the wheels. Instead of installing the conventional circular wheels, though, he used linear metal members with chains mounted on the rim, and a rubber tread around the chains, like the wheel belt seen on tanks. To have the pedals work this belt, The Q added another gear to the bike frame, connecting the pedals to the top of the rear ‘wheel’. To secure the wheels in place, they were then fixed at two points, allowing them to hold their angular mounting position as you rode the bicycle.
The entirely silent YouTube video doesn’t provide much scope for justification – for example, why angle the treads when you could make them flat like a tank for extra stability? Or why build something as absurd as this AT ALL? However, the 6-minute 47-second visual journey The Q takes on is quite a fun ride… just like his bicycle, I suppose!
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