We've seen all sorts of cool and crazy concepts this year designed to make any bicycle enthusiast's heart jump: from bikes with airless tires to hubless ones, there's really no limit when tinkerers put their minds to it. And YouTuber Colin Furze's latest creation is proof of that. Recently, he "reinvented" the wheel by putting 14 legs on it instead of tires. And they all come with 14 little shoes as well.
He got inspired by James Bruton, a YouTuber who also likes to create and experiment with new concepts involving some sort of movement and wheels. Colin decided to take James' idea of a small wheel with pegs and flat "feet" attached to it to a much bigger scale – one that would actually support a person's weight.
His wheel had to be big enough to fit on a bike, so he started all of the work with some laser cutting based on a scale offered by James. He took some wood and put a bunch of holes in it to secure bearings with nails around the feet, which are represented by hollow aluminum square bars. This way, they could move up and down as the wheel spins under a human's weight on an uneven surface.
Colin proceeded to 3D-print some tiny feet that ended up attached to the end of the 14 aluminum bars with joints and everything. He then moved on to add the hub and the final product started to come together.
However, something did not work well: there were too many joints put on the legs that made the feet sometimes flick back. So he got rid of the feet and just kept the legs to which he attached shoes. He also put an elastic at the other end to pull all of the legs in.
Colin did have to extend the bike's forks because this crazy wheel turned out to be a tad too big. Nonetheless, the final version turned out to be a fine piece of engineering. To show that everything worked accordingly, he even tested the new invention on the road.
You can watch Colin build the wheel and explain the process in detail in the video down below. You can also watch him ride his Franken-bike around and have a blast.
His wheel had to be big enough to fit on a bike, so he started all of the work with some laser cutting based on a scale offered by James. He took some wood and put a bunch of holes in it to secure bearings with nails around the feet, which are represented by hollow aluminum square bars. This way, they could move up and down as the wheel spins under a human's weight on an uneven surface.
Colin proceeded to 3D-print some tiny feet that ended up attached to the end of the 14 aluminum bars with joints and everything. He then moved on to add the hub and the final product started to come together.
However, something did not work well: there were too many joints put on the legs that made the feet sometimes flick back. So he got rid of the feet and just kept the legs to which he attached shoes. He also put an elastic at the other end to pull all of the legs in.
Colin did have to extend the bike's forks because this crazy wheel turned out to be a tad too big. Nonetheless, the final version turned out to be a fine piece of engineering. To show that everything worked accordingly, he even tested the new invention on the road.
You can watch Colin build the wheel and explain the process in detail in the video down below. You can also watch him ride his Franken-bike around and have a blast.