Finally, a bike that takes ‘thinking outside the box’ to a whole new level with its square wheels
by Stephen Rivers
2 hours ago
by Stephen Rivers
Modern engineering allows everyday folks to create in a way not truly possible in the past. Today, we get a glimpse of one such project, a square-wheeled bicycle that actually works… sort of. Here’s a quick look into how one guy reinvented the wheel.
The Q is a YouTube channel that describes itself as “Science videos and more.” We’d say that’s apt as this particular project doesn’t serve any real scientific or practical value that we can come up with. Still, it’s incredibly cool to see what’s possible with a little engineering know-how and the tooling to make an idea come to life.
In the beginning of the video, the builder created the square support frames that the tracks will rotate around. Then a spinning pair of gears gets added to each corner. Now the really hard work begins as a pair of bicycle chains is welded together via small steel plates. This finished component makes up the main body of the track.
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The builder then takes the original bicycle tire and cuts it into slivers that correspond to the steel pieces in the track. Screws hold the rubber to the track and the whole finished piece rotates around the square wheel. The project isn’t over already though.
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A traditional bicycle sends power from the crank to the center of the rear wheel through a chain. Since the center of these wheels won’t be rotating, the engineers have to do something different. Instead, they send power from the crank through two other gears before stepping down and turning an exterior gear on the tread itself.
Under power we see the bike move forward on its square wheels without any obvious issues but the clips are pretty short. We don’t get a chance to see if this thing will actually turn without too much drama. We also wonder how well it would climb and if it could descend safely.
Either way, it’s a fun little feat of engineering that doesn’t work in the fashion that one might expect. It’s not too far afield from other bicycle projects on the channel that include a split-wheeled bicycle, the smallest functional bicycle, and a bike frame made completely out of nuts.