Running bike: replace rear wheel with legs
What do I have on my bike now? It probably requires the brain of a pleasantly deranged person to replace the rear wheel of a bicycle with legs. Yet the idea is less crazy than it seems. Because it is not for nothing that in nature we almost only encounter legs and almost no wheels…
The Strandbeest: the primal walking machine
The artist Theo Janssen came up with a remarkable work of art, the Strandbeest. This artwork is propelled by the wind and has no wheels. Instead, it has legs, which, with the help of an ingenious system, make the beach animal walk step by step.
Theo Janssen became world famous for this, although he remains a modest man. And he inspired tinkerers all over the world with his unique, groundbreaking artwork. One of them was CARV. He converted a bicycle in such a way that the rear wheel was replaced by a Strandbeest-like construction. A bicycle that is powered by legs instead of a rear wheel.
His system, which was rather ramshackle, was further perfected by the tinkerers group The Q, well known on the internet. They managed to make a smoothly working model of this bicycle. As you can see in the picture, the racing bike moves forward because the legs that replaced the rear wheel push the bike forward step by step.
It’s hard pedaling, but sure enough, you’ll make progress. So, it works. Since this is a completely new vehicle, it is logical that it does not yet work optimally. Would decades of technical evolution make this a comfortable
can be turned into a “bicycle”?
Legs in the woods more convenient
Now you immediately see the advantage of legs. Because legs remain on the ground, legs are much less affected by obstacles on the road surface than a wheel. A beast with wheels won’t get far in a forest.
Boston Dynamics’ newest robot for the US military, which supports soldiers by carrying cargo, also uses legs to move. The advantage is that this robot dog can simply move over uneven terrain. That is of course a huge advantage in the open field, or in the city, because most battles do not take place on the road.
Electric bicycle on the road the most pleasant and fastest
But luckily there are ways. That is why we humans can move much more easily with vehicles on wheels. And if you do opt for a vehicle with wheels, why not an economical and comfortable vehicle.
Because although we have every respect for the tinkering of the team at The Q, we really think that you can make progress on a Gazelle, a Pegasus or a Sparta electric bicycle much faster, and above all much tastier than with this bizarre, but nice work of art.
Maybe one day The Q will outdo themselves and come up with an electric bike that has no wheels at all. On the one hand: how cool would that be. On the other hand, you are likely to get seasick if you ride such a “bike”. Would you like to have such a bike?
