Chainless Bicycle Will Turn A Few Heads

Someone let [Tane] play around with welding equipment and bicycle parts and look what happened! He built a diminutive velocipede. Now that’s just a term for a human-powered land vehicle, but the term fits a bit better as this is missing most of the stuff you’d expect to see on a bicycle.

He started with a mountain bike and a kick scooter, then went to work on both with a hack saw. A bit of welding and angle grinding left him with what you see above. It’s still steerable, but missing are the cranks, chain, and brakes. That’s okay though, the bike is low enough for your legs to reach the ground – you start it up and come to a stop Fred-Flintstone-Style.

[Tane] originally meant to add electric propulsion but didn’t quite get around to it. There’s always the option to add a hub motor to the rear wheel if he has the time and motivation.

26 thoughts on “Chainless Bicycle Will Turn A Few Heads

    1. I don’t know why this comment made me laugh as hard as it did, but even the 2nd time I read it, I’m cracking up just as much. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for the laugh…

      1. It may just be me, but i feel that hacking is usually about fixing, modifying, or altering to make something work better. This does make it look interesting, but it is not as functional as either device that was sacrificed. This post is titled chainless bike, it is a scooter with a seat, not a chainless bike.

    1. [Note to moderators: I screwed up and hit ‘report’ on the comment to which I’m replying, thinking I was hitting ‘reply’. I don’t seen an ‘un-report’ option, but it’d be neat if somebody were to hack something up.]

  1. Basically walking while sitting down. I guess there are worse things for idle hands to come up with. Who knows what items we use daily that began with someone farting around with what they have at hand? Not entirely useless. A volunteer service organization can built a fleet of them to clown around on in a local parades.

  2. Back when I was young and couldn’t afford new brake pads on my bmx, I’d just reach back with one leg and stick it between the frame and back tire to screech to a halt. But even that method requires something like a pedal to leverage against – which there doesn’t seem to be any room for ;[ Could always add front brakes…but, no…nevermind – I see that ending badly.

  3. RadBrad’ll do ya one better: a swiveling rear wheel. Also check out his plans for the SpinCycle (it’s a three-wheeled, sit-down version of the above).

    As soon as this oppressive heat+humidity are gone (I live in the U.S. Midwest), I plan to start making stuff out of bikes. It looks fun!

  4. Yeah, the picture they used is from near the end of the build. In the last picture you can see it in its current state, stripped back to bare metal.

    As for “is it a hack” I put it to you that I made it with a hacksaw. It wasn’t meant to change the world or break new ground in science and engineering. It was meant to be a fun thing to make from some old junk, and it was perfect for scooting around a large indoor venue. :)

  5. why would you want a hubmotor on the rear wheel? front wheel drive on a bike is more fun, IMO. what would be cool, though, would be to implement the battery into a backpack, which you plug in to ride, instead of uglying that ugly thing up more with tig ol’ batteries.

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