Designer Ben Wilson has produced a monowheel - a cycle where the rider sits inside a large, spokeless wheel.
The cycle was commissioned for the XXIst Century Man exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo.
“As part of the exhibition the 21st century man (showing at 21-21 tokyo midtown until july) I was comissioned to create a new piece of work,” says Wilson.
“Ever since cycling for the first time without stablisers I have been fascinated by human propulsion. Over the years the myth of the monowheel has become an equal fascination.”
“Since the 1860s many patents have been filed in the monowheel’s name and today there are even rumors of a production monowheel in China, but as it stands there is nothing currently available. As we couldn’t buy a monowheel we made one.”
“We don’t suggest for one moment that a functioning human powered monowheel could ever provide an improvement on the modern bicycle. Instead its value comes from the discourse and ideas generated as a result of this research.”
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Posted by Marcus Fairs
Can it really work? I think he is leaning the bike against the wall…
April 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pmSouth Park!
April 21st, 2008 at 6:27 pmso.. you cannot actually ride it?
April 21st, 2008 at 7:04 pmdissappointing, cause it looks so good
[…] an amazing concept […]
April 21st, 2008 at 8:08 pmThe bike looks good but it’s totally impractical: there’s nowhere to put a shopping basket!
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:26 ami want to see him ride it without falling over.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:07 ambut, is it comfortable???
anyway, check out the one which is currently exhibited at the Triennale, in Milan, in the exhibition about italian design… designed a few years ago
check http://www.triennaledesignmuseum.it/
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 amThis is the best new (concept)bike i’ve seen in years!
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 amkeep on rollin’..
can we see a video of it in action?
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:40 pmYes, a video is the only thing that can help. Anyway it’s still far away from the traditional bicycle perfect concept
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:08 pmhow does it turn?
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:23 pmMonowheels have been around and around. See here for video of a better functioning design:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui4kI-RHS1Q&feature=related
There are also monowheel motorbikes which can be difficult to ride at first.
The above design is nice and clean, but seems like you would scrape your ass on a hard turn…
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pmall the loose change would fall out your pocket if you sit like that!
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:05 pmwow roll on….
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 pmHe is leaning against the wall so they can take a photo - I suppose they wanted a good photo, so they didn’t want the fuss of getting him at just the right moment while he’s moving. Dunno - that’s just what I thought.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:41 pmAnd yes, assuming the bike itself (mechanisms) actually works, then he could easily ride it without falling over. Essentially it’s a unicycle with the center of gravity lower than the axle - which makes it easier to ride than a unicycle.
Wouldn’t want to have to slam on the brakes!
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:27 amI agree with Daniel: all I can think of is a South Park episode!
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 amKerry McLean has been building them for years
http://www.bikerworld.co.uk/monocycles/kerry/index.html
April 24th, 2008 at 4:40 amvery interesting。。。 this design
April 29th, 2008 at 5:58 amIt!
April 29th, 2008 at 6:56 pmSuggest moving the hand grips closer to the centre to avoid scuffing.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:52 amClive R.
No chance of riding it with that gear ratio!!
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:43 pmAnd the point is what?
No luggage capacity, no way of staying dry in the wet, how do you stop quickly without rolling head over heels?
Visibility of the road is terrible, visiblity from other road users is poor, how can you fix lights?
A solution looking for a problem I think…..
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 pm