Bicycles

Bizarre split-wheel bike chops the back wheel in half

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Certainly an attention-grabbing bike
The Q / YouTube
Certainly an attention-grabbing bike
The Q / YouTube
A Ukrainian YouTuber has built a bizarre but rideable bicycle with its rear wheel cut into two sections
The Q / YouTube
Oh yes, you can ride it
The Q / YouTube
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Ukrainian YouTuber Sergeii Gordieiev, AKA "The Q," has gone and done a very YouTubey thing indeed, rigging up a bicycle to ride with two half-wheels instead of a single rear wheel. Why? Well, because it looks absolutely bizarre rolling down the road.

Gordieiev seems to enjoy making weird bikes – you may have seen previous videos in which he replaced a bike's wheels with giant circular saw blades and rode it around on a frozen lake, or created wheels made out of shoes on poles, or built a hubless bike, or replaced the chain drive with a bevel gear, or built shock absorbers into the wheel spokes for truly unique suspension, or made his own airless tires out of PVC piping ...

The list goes on, and his latest effort adds another fine bullet point, splitting the rear wheel into two halves and running one half behind the other, adding an extra rear triangle that extends from the back of the bike. This takes no small amount of faffery, but Gordieiev has built a successful business out of such faffery and is talented enough on the tools to make it all work.

A Ukrainian YouTuber has built a bizarre but rideable bicycle with its rear wheel cut into two sections
The Q / YouTube

For starters, he saws a couple of rear rims nearly in half, keeping the hubs intact, then he cuts tire sections to match. He recreates the inner tube using what looks like some PVC pipe, eventually popping bungs in each end. Refitting the disc brake and rear sprocket, he puts the first half-wheel back on the bike, then sets about welding the extended rear triangle onto the back.

From there, it's a matter of keeping the wheels in sync to make sure there's always a half-tire touching down when the other's lifting up. This he achieves with a second chain running between the two rear wheels, and then he fits it all up with the two wheels locked in opposite orientations throughout the rotation.

And voila: a machine that looks absolutely absurd, but is clearly rideable, even if dropping off a curb now gives you three solid bumps on the backside instead of two. It's all in the name of weirdness, and on that metric, The Q has excelled himself.

Enjoy the video below.

Source: The Q

View gallery - 3 images
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11 comments
Claudio
weird looking and completely useless... nevertheless very cool ideas!
Koziol
He blew his front tire, so he shredded his back tire? How did this solve his blown front tire?
paul314
If you could change the distance between the wheel halves in real time, perhaps you could avoid bumps by simply never having a tire segment down and riding on the bump. (Yeah, right.)
martinwinlow
The very epitome of 'form over function'!!
jayedwin98020
I've looked at this bike, and some of his other designs, and I'm still asking myself: "What's the point"?
Danny
I like it.
Jimmy the Geek
It draws attention and makes a statement. Maybe that's enough reason? Otherwise we would all drive 4 wheeled boxes.
Troublesh00ter
Clever, Creative, and FUN! So what if it's not practical?
anthony88
I'm actually amazed he got the spray can paint to match. Not easy with bikes!
sidmehta
Loved it and great video!