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Asked by
lozza (
307
)
March 29th, 2008
If you took the wheel of a push-bike and replaced the spokes with strong elastic or high-tensile narrow springs, would it act like suspension as the wheel turned over bumps? I just can’t visualize if it would work or not and I’m not about to make a prototype!!
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12 Answers
I would highly advise you to remove this question immediately. I am not accusing anyone on this site of stealing ideas but it is a common practice on the internet, in general.
Best of luck to you.
No – it’s fine. I can’t be bothered to build one but if someone else can and it worked, that’d be great!
I’d imagine that the “spokes” would have to be very firm. Otherwise the wheel would loose it’s shape, which would drastically decrease it’s effeciency, and greatly increase it’s drag.
It’d prob have a similar feeling to that of a tire with low air pressure.
Excellent title btw. There is always a fine line between the two.
I’d say that you’d always be sagging. So when you peddle it would be like…well, imagine an egg shaped wheel where your axle is somewhere nearer one end than the middle of the egg. But then imagine that the feeling you have when you start riding, a somewhat uphill feeling, is how it feels to ride the bike all the time.
I think you are probably right Breefield. Gravity would distort the wheel therefore making it unstable.
It may not look like it, but there is a great deal of flexibility and shock absorption built into the spokes of a bicycle wheel, such that the rim of the tire will flex ever so slightly and imperceptibly when you go over a bump or a crack in the pavement.
I can’t really expound on this, I am not an engineer but someone with a good grasp of physics could give a better explanation of the effect.
SRM
Your wheels will never be circular, the bike wouldn’t be able to move without extreme effort.
Without a doubt the wheel wouldn’t hold it’s shape.
You could probably get a Mad “Bunny-Hop” with a wheel like that, but I’d say Breefield “hit the nail on the head”.
The other thing I just realized is that there would be no way to keep the axle…horizontal. So your tire would constantly be rubbing on the fork and such. I simply doubt the idea would work very well.
I urge you to check this video of the “Tweel”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SBNa6VBDxtE
It’s pretty much the only way you could get what you’re talking about to work. Amazing indeed.
@bulbatron – the “Mad ‘Bunny-Hop’” made me laugh outloud. What a great image…
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