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The Square-Wheel Bicycle Is a Rideable, Beautiful Piece of Engineering

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but there's no denying that there is beauty in strange contraptions that work even when they look like they shouldn't. This also applies to this square-wheel bicycle, probably the first of its kind in the world.
The square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really ride 26 photos
Photo: YouTube / The Q (Composite)
The square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really rideThe square-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really ride
There's no official count for bicycle-related records or world firsts, but if there were, The Q would be at the top of the leaderboard. The Q is Sergii Gordieiev, a self-professed nerd into "science videos and more" with a soft spot for reinvented DIY (do-it-yourself) bicycles. For him, the combination of these two has proved the perfect recipe for getting those world firsts.

Over the years, The Q has delivered some of the strangest contraptions on two wheels you'll likely see anywhere, starting with the most basic, pedal-powered bikes and turning them into noteworthy one-offs with his imagination and refined skills. There's the icycle, a bike that can ride on ice because he swapped the wheels for circular saw blades. There's the bike with wheels made of hot glue gun sticks, which glows in the dark. There's the bike with half-wheels and the hubless fat bike – and the examples could continue for a while.

The Q has a knack for strange ideas and, most impressively, for making them into real objects that retain some of the functionality of the original. That last part is the most impressive.

The square\-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really ride
Photo: YouTube / The Q
Bicycles have been around for over 200 years, and with all the progress in the industry, one thing has remained constant about them: the fact that both wheels are round. If you're in the mood for another cliché, you can't or shouldn’t reinvent the wheel because it's perfect as it is, but The Q isn't letting that stop him from doing it. If anything, it seems that this is his favorite gimmick for the spectacular, highly-engineered bicycles he creates.

Where common sense and physics say it can't be done, The Q proves that it can. Take the square-wheel bike as an example, his most recent build and by far "the craziest" project he ever worked on: it's a Crosser fat tire bike (he seems to have a thing for those, too) with homemade wheels that are perfect squares. It doesn't just look very impressive, but it's actually rideable.

The Q even goes as far as to say that it's a fully-functional bicycle, which you can ride normally and even take turns with. Do take a grain of salt with the latter part of that claim because it's highly unlikely that it can do anything more than crawl at a slow speed on even ground, and that too with maximum effort on the rider's part.

The square\-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really ride
Photo: YouTube / The Q
But none of that means that we can't appreciate this bike for what it is: a beautiful piece of engineering that is as eye-catching as it's impressive. It's not particularly useful and doesn't make any sense from a practical perspective, but that's not to say that it doesn't deserve its time in the spotlight for the simple reason that it exists. It's like haute-couture for fashion lovers, with these fashion lovers being, in this case, spandex-wearing or plainclothes cyclists.

Obviously, since a square can't turn smoothly on the ground, the wheels on this bike don't rotate. Instead, the bike rides on tracks, like a mini-tank on two wheels, with an adapted drivetrain that sends power from the crank to the gears on the outside of each square.

To create the square wheels, The Q built a heavy supporting metal frame, to which he added a spinning gear and a couple of rolling bearings on each side. He added bike chains to the spinning gears, going around the frame, and a new rubber track made up of cut-up pieces from the original bike tire, bolted to the chains, the moving part of the track. With the modified drivetrain, which features two cranks, one for a spinning gear on each wheel, the bicycle can be pedaled into motion.

The square\-wheel bike is a DIY bicycle that you can really ride
Photo: YouTube / The Q
As he always does, The Q documented the entire build and the result in a video for his "science” channel, and it immediately went viral. The footage showing the bike in action is short, highly edited, and filmed only on very smooth, even ground, so you can't really tell anything about how the bike would handle in real life.

It's safe to assume, though, that it wouldn't hold up. The wheels are very heavy, so getting it to move from a standstill is probably hell on your legs, and it will most likely not be able to turn or handle a rougher patch. But it works, and it shows that you can have square wheels on a bike and still have it ride. It's beautiful, too – like watching an optical illusion come to life.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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