wle
big deal, another flop in the works come back in 10 years when it has sold about 54 bikes.
Bionic88
I like it but the version in the video looks a little awkward to pedal(especially the up stroke), and almost certainly will require clipped pedals. Toe clip pedals might be a better alternative for casual riders..you won't need to purchase the shoes just to ride it. I'm not a competitive rider, I don't own the sweet bike tights, but I've put in a few thousand miles on a street bike using toe clips..I don't think I'd ever change back or to any other pedals.
And this is a very clever design. I think to better utilize the pedals they'll have to break with the standard bike form.
..another great prototype/possible game changer I'm rooting for. Thanks for the post guys!!
Malatrope
There's nothing new about a desmodromic drive. It's been used in all sorts of machinery (including car camshaft drives) for over a century.
Anne Ominous
Using levers rather than cranks has been around a long time.
An earlier version I saw a couple of decades ago, though, had cables attached to the levers, which pulled short lengths of chain around sprockets on the rear wheel, one on each side. Then a ratchet in the hub converted the back-and-forth motion of each sprocket into forward motion.
It was claimed to be much more efficient then, too.
$3,800 seems like an awful lot of money for this. Too much.
possum1
At the dawn of bicycles, a similar idea was tried. The chain drive and derailleur have been the product of evolution in bicycles to produce the most efficient method of propulsion. Rear wheel removal looks simple, except you get half the bike with it ! A novel idea, but not likely to show up in the Tour de France any time soon.
lalo
It might prove to be more efficient than the traditional setup, but don't claim it's because of the long arm - basic physics still determines the power
fred_dot_u
While a youth in the 70s, a similar design was presented and failed as have all the subsequent similar designs. The statement about stress and efficiency is misleading.
The human body has far less stress when pedaling in a circle than when one's legs have to reverse direction for each stroke.
The gearing aspect is also misleading, as one can select desired gear ratios easily with today's bikes. I have a sophisticated hub gear (Rohloff) that has linear changes over the 14 selectable ratios.
Everything old is new again!
Leonard Foster Jr
How do you Sprint ??
pmshah
You call this an invention ? I remember having a kid's car with similar drive mechanism some 65 years ago !!!! From the looks of it, it does not seem to even have freewheel/ratchet type of mechanism. BTW you see these on steam locomotives which have been around for more than a century !!!!
YouAre
This idea must be tried on velomobiles.