Check Out This Ungodly and Out-of-This-World DIY Concept: It's a "Wheelless" Bike

Folks, there are countless people who love to tinker with things. One such group is made up of the folks over at The Q, a YouTube channel that has always had a place in my heart because of the wild and out-there projects they attempt.

You may have already seen their work, including the Hubless bike, Square-Wheel bike, the Split-Wheel monstrosity, and now, the Wheelless bike, which is actually more of a tracked vehicle than anything else but created with a bicycle frame and components.

So, what the heck are we looking at, and why the fuss? Well, I love myself a solid bicycle, but I also love weird and odd projects that you can even achieve in your own garage, assuming you've got the tools needed to make everything happen.

Now, before we go on, have a look at the images in the gallery and the video below. Once you've done that, come back to the text so that we can ask some questions and possibly even some answers. Best of all, if you pay attention to the steps The Q presents, you too could be riding around on a Wheelless bike once the colder months have passed.

Overall, everything starts off with the most basic MTB frame you can find. Even an urban-destined bicycle frame will do. The catch here is to have a massive tire clearance at the fork and seat stays. Preferably, a low-budget fat-tire frame is what you need.

Oh, and that frame has been previously modified. If we look at the drivetrain, we can see extra sprockets connected to the crankset, and you'll see what all that's for later, but this is a step that has been omitted in the video, so you'll need to use your engineering skills, to make it happen, or you can just copy what you see.

From here, you'll need some steel rectangular tubes to craft the not-so-wheels of this contraption. These steel tubes will be used as a base for countless rivets, screws, chains, rubber, and even an axle. It also needs to be rather solid as this component will support all the weight of the rider and bike.

As we progress, The Q goes to town, completing the tracks. Welded to that central steel beam are two sets of sprockets, one on each end of the track. These toothed gears will act as guides for the rubber track below, helping keep tension at proper levels and ensuring the track doesn't slip off in any way during turns.

Speaking of the track, to craft what we see, The Q seems to have used a good ol' fat tire, chopped, cut, modified, and eventually welded to two chains that will be wrapping around those opposing sprockets I mentioned. The catch here is that the tire is actually cut up into separate sections and attached to the track with screws, a process that is bound to have been time-consuming.

Once all that's been figured out and all, The Q adds a few cosmetic touches, and before long, we see this machine carrying its creator through a local park. But how does it work?

Well, let's break down what we see. At around minute 5:50 of the video, we see the final concept in all its glory, but unlike other tracked vehicles we may be used to seeing with flat-running tracks, the Wheelless bike pivots the tracks to a nearly vertical position.

As a result, you'll be riding on a contact patch that's just a few inches wide and deep. Why so little friction? Simply because you don't need it, and if the tracks were to be laying down flat, getting this bugger moving would be a problem, not to mention turning.

Now, like any bicycle, pedaling power must be transferred to the wheels, and it is. This is where that modified drivetrain comes in. With it, a network of chains is revealed, and with each stroke of the pedal, energy is transferred to the rear track via an exposed sprocket on the right side of the bicycle.

As for the actual riding experience, you really need to watch the last minute or so of the video with the volume on. Whatever you're hearing, I can assure you that your speakers and headphones are fine; it's just one noisy contraption!

But what's making all that noise? I could make it out to those screws holding the track together and the chain rubbing against that central steel beam, something we can't see. Oh, and if you look closely, we can spot the occasional rubbing against the asphalt with those lateral blue strips that were added for that spicy cosmetic makeover. Top it all off with a signature The Q thumbs up, and that's your DIY project.

Regarding riding, everything is tuned to just one speed, so while you're making all that noise, you'll also be moving along rather slowly, like a beat-up four-wheeler with nothing more than a muffler modification on it. Hey, I'm just the messenger here, and this wheelless contraption is something some people would attempt to make; I would, too, if it weren't for that acoustic factor.