Evolution of Bicycles

Walk up to your bicycle and ask yourself the question, is there any other design possible for my bike?

·                     Can I make it faster, cooler and smarter?

·                     Why is the design the way it is?

·                      Why do I need 2 wheels?

·                     Do they have to be of the same size?

·                      Why is the seat somewhere in the middle of the wheels?

·                      Why is the handle bar on the front wheel?

·                      Why can’t we control the back wheel in the same way?

You can ask many such questions and think about the possible answers.  These questions basically brought about the bicycle design to the state that it is in today. The questions were posed by erstwhile scientists, designers, even artists. Believe it or not, many ideas were tried and really innovative and different designs popped up. So why did they not SURVIVE the test of time? This was because the models had certain disadvantages which had to be addressed.

Ok then, just ERASE your bicycle from your mind and think of designing one on your own.

After the “revolutionary” design of the wheel, one would obviously want to use its power of motion. Ever played with tyres? Rolling them on the road using a stick and running along? Although maybe the computer version would have replaced this today, I hope you get the idea of the game. Now why can’t you ride ON THE TYRE instead of running with it?

Right then, say you put a seat on the wheel and travel along. Obviously you would fall off after moving a while. The reason is that the wheel DOES NOT TRAVEL WITH YOU. Ok then, let’s say we fit the tyre with an axle and put a seat over it and go along. Then we have a very ELEMENTARY UNICYCLE.

THE PEDAL

But in order to move, you would require somebody’s help (a push). But experience shows that you will eventually slow down and come to a halt (due to friction on the road). Now we devise a mechanism to overcome this. How can we “push ourselves” during the course of motion? The mechanism must cause the wheel to roll. This invented the PEDAL and the unicycle evolved to this structure:

Just look at this alternate coool models !!

 The pedal is added so that the speed can be controlled. Try riding this a few times and realisation strikes that it is VERY DIFFICULT to balance. The ride will definitely be far from comfortable and will be accompanied by a few halts and FALLS.

Instead of this suppose we add another wheel so that the weight is spread evenly on both the wheels. Then we can have more BALANCED MOTION. This design was imagined and was even implemented as shown:

HANDLE BARS:

So we have a basic design with two wheels and a seat. We use wheels of the same size so that it is at sitting level and is uniformly straight.  Now how to control/change the DIRECTION OF MOTION? Suppose you want to change direction of travel. Then we would have to stop the bicycle, lift it, turn it and then ride it again. This is CUMBERSOME.

So to SIMULTANEOUSLY control the direction of motion we have a handle. Now comes the question of where to put the handle?

Can we have the handle on the back wheel? The answer is “No” because if we did, we would have to be seated somewhere at the back of the cycle, and this does not give good control. This is the practical side of it. There is also a technical problem. If the forward wheel is fixed to the frame and the back wheel can be tilted using handle bars, then imagine the cycle’s motion if the back wheel is turned. As it is turned, it tries to PULL the rest of the cycle in that direction and hence, it tries coming forward. It will cause the bicycle to turn in a complex way and may unbalance the rider, making him fall.

Instead of this, we put the handles right at the front so that it can easily pull the rest of the cycle as it turns.

We can still meddle with the following aspects

·                     The size of the wheels

·                     The position of the pedal

Initially, we stated that in the OLD MODEL (given in the picture), we have the wheels at same height(and hence at same size) so that it is at a proper level, and it moves as we walk. So we basically want to suit ERGONOMICS – i.e the BODY POSTURE. Any other position might cause discomfort. But with the invention of pedals, one can always think of designs as so:

The problem with such designs is very basic à HOW TO MOUNT on the cycle??

PEDAL POSITIONING:

Given tyres of equal sizes and a pedal attached to the front wheel/back wheel, then what problems do we face? Well, one problem is that a lot of weight is put on any END of the bicycle and hence the bicycle may TOPPLE. So therefore, we want the weight to be balanced, and the seat and pedal is shifted to the middle of the bicycle frame.

Then all we have to do is add a chain to connect the pedal and the wheel. Once again the pedal can be connected to either front or back wheel! SO which one is better BACK or FRONT?

The back wheel is connected to the pedal preferably because it remains firmly attached to the plane of the frame. As the front wheel is subjected to turning, it may cause loosening of the chain, and it may COME OFF. So the chain is preferably attached to the back wheel.

VOILA!! You have designed the MODERN DAY BICYCLE.

GOOGLE-UP images for à ODD BICYLCES

Look at the cool designs and wonder if any if any of them are actually possible! To start you up, wonder on the following design:

A SHORT NOTE:

All this is just to say that bicycles (or any device for that matter) don’t have to be the way they are. The design is something that should not be taken for granted. It is always interesting to think why the design is the way that it is. Can it be bettered? Can we have ABSOLUTELY DIFFERENT, RADICAL designs (like the one shown).

Keep thinking on all these and who knows, you may design the NEXT BEST THING in the market!!

-         Article done by Ahmed Sameer Khan