Thursday, 24 April 2014

Revolutions in bike design

Revolutions in bike design
The Halfbike is a tricycle, made in Bulgaria, designed to be ridden standing up in order to work muscles that are not used when riding a conventional bicycle. The front wheel is driven by pedals while the back wheels pivot, so the rider steers by leaning from side to side.
Mihail Klenov, a co-inventor of the Halfbike, explained that it has taken some time to develop the idea: 'I liked the idea very much and it took us several years of discussions and improvements to get the present result. We built several prototypes to see how the idea could be developed into a working model.'
The tricycle has an aluminium frame and a plywood pole steering device, meaning it weighs just 7.7 kg. It costs around 600 euros and takes some time to learn to ride.
In Lithuania, they are developing another unusual bicycle. It is called the Rubbee and offers riders the chance not to pedal at all! This lightweight electronic device can be attached to any bicycle in under a minute, and once it switched on, riders can let the engine do the work.
Gediminas Nemanis, the inventor of the Rubbee, explained: 'Rubbee is unique in its method of transferring energy directly to the bicycle tyre because it doesn’t use chains, drives, belts, cogs, or gears.'
The device weighs 6.5 kg, reaches a top speed of 25 km/h, and costs around 900 euros.




No comments:

Post a Comment

thank you for your precious time and feedback.