True Triangle Is a Rideable, Comfortable Bicycle With Triangle-Shaped Wheels

The Q is a self-professed nerd and fabricator who does "science videos and more" and posts them on the socials. His real name is Sergii Gordieiev, and not much else is known about him. Unlike most content creators who use their videos to shine the spotlight on themselves, The Q doesn't.

Instead, his videos showcase his creations from idea stage to design, the actual build, and the first tests in real life. They're edited to be fun, light, and notably short, making the science behind each project more digestible for an audience who might not have the basic knowledge to understand the many hours of hard work that go into them.

The Q has a soft spot for unique bicycles, which start as traditional, round-wheeled, pedal-powered machines and become feats of engineering that border on artworks. His projects, without fault, are incredible examples of creativity and skill and proof that the fine but usually uncrossable line between what's possible and what's not doesn’t exist. For him, it doesn't, at the very least.

True Triangle is also proof of that, if any was still needed. Over the years, The Q has created several world firsts on two wheels, from the first bicycle that can ride on ice because it has circular saws for wheels to the first bicycle with square wheels that is still fully functional and can make turns. This one is a bicycle with triangle wheels because, as The Q puts it, "Who said wheels have to be round?" Well, nobody did unless you count the entire world.

Bicycles have been around for almost two centuries, and the one thing that has never changed about them, even with the advent of electric and motor-assisted bikes, is the shape of their wheels. Come to think of it, the wheel has always been round, and it's worked just fine for us. But let not physics and tradition stop The Q from playing around to create something new!

To start, The Q used a standard, albeit a bit rusty, bicycle with double suspension, front, and rear. He removed the wheels and set out to re-engineer the arms so as to prevent too much vertical movement. But first, he built the new triangle-shaped wheels.

He made those out of wood, with new hubs and rubber from the old tires, cut up in three sections and glued to the woody base. He added articulations on the arms, with built-in limiters for minimal vertical movement. For the same purpose, he added a set of arms on the front and back of the frame, with evenly spaced-out rollers. These are positioned in a straight line parallel to the ground over the wheels, and the top of each wheel rolls from one end to the other on them. This way, The Q made the bike ride more comfortably but also with less effort than you'd expect.

Once every component was done and prior to the assembly, The Q added a fresh coat of paint in more vibrant red and orange, an improvement over the plain silver of the original machine. At first sight, you can't see the rollers that are now part of the drivetrain, or if you do, you probably won't be able to guess just how big a part they play in the way the bike functions.

"Triangle wheels can be comfortable!" The Q says in the description. "Actually, with this type of suspension almost any wheels shape would feel like normal round ones [sic]."

The final test drive shows that, indeed, the new bike with unique triangle wheels is comfortable in the sense that you don't see The Q bouncing up and down on it as he pedals. As it starts to roll, you half expect it to tumble along in a clumsy manner, but the rollers and the articulated arms help to contain unwanted movement and keep it on its straight – and surprisingly smooth – line.

That's not to say there's no difference between this contraption and any other standard bicycle because that would be a huge stretch. The little we see of True Triangle in motion is not indicative of how it would perform in real life, riding over different terrain, at different speeds, or at different gradients. It just shows that, despite what your brain might tell you to the contrary, a bicycle with triangle wheels can be a functional machine.

Like the square-wheel bike we discussed in a separate story, this over-engineered two-wheeler is awesome because it exists when there's no reason why it should and because it works when we all know it shouldn't. It might be the noisiest thing since the bike with legs, but it is what it is. It's here to defy physics, logic, and expectations, to break the brain and show that everything is possible if you have an analytical mind and the skills to carry out whatever said analytical mind comes up with.