You may think that wheels are essential when it comes to bicycles, but one resourceful engineer’s recent invention demonstrates that two half wheels are just as good as one full wheel.
Sergii Gordieiev, engineer and YouTuber extraordinaire, is known for his ingenious inventions – including a chainless bike and a drill-powered ice bike – but his latest creation undoubtedly takes the cake as the most unusual. This bizarre contraption basically has two half rear wheels instead of a complete one, and they work in tandem to do the job of a regular one. As weird as it sounds, this crazy bike shows that two half wheels, when used correctly, are just as good as one full wheel.
Firstly, this is obviously a show-off type of project. The wheel is perfect as it is, and even if 0.5 x 2 = 1, as Gordieiev tries to demonstrate, there’s really no good reason to ruin a perfectly good bicycle. Watching his YouTube making-of video, you quickly realize the painstaking work that went into this project.
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From extending the rear frame of the bicycle and using a chainring mounted to the disc brake for one of the half wheels, to cutting a wheel in half and making sure they spin in tandem to fulfill the function of a full wheel, this project required a lot of work and attention to detail.
Just in case you’re wondering how on Earth he managed to cut the tubes in half and preserve all the air in, well, he didn’t. The tires are attached to the wheels with pipe and rivets, which may impact ride comfort, but it was also the only realistic solution to his problem.
So the half-wheel bicycle isn’t perfect, but does it at least work. Like a dream, according to Sergii Gordieiev, and his video is proof of that. Not only does the bike run great on flat, even surfaces, but it can even tackle curbs without any issue, which looks remarkable. Curbing, on the other hand, could be an issue, due to the half wheels not synchronizing perfectly, which is probably why no curbing is shown in the video.
