The triangular frame of a traditional mountain bike needs to be the most rigid structure, and a triangle can be a very sturdy shape. So [Colin Furze] throws a spanner in the works, or, in this case, a bunch of springs. The video is below the break, but please try to imagine you are at a party, eyeballing some delicious salsa, yet instead of a tortilla chip, someone hands you a slab of gelatin dessert. The bike is kind of like that.
Anyone who has purchased springs knows there are a lot of options and terminology, such as Newton meters of force, extension, compression, and buckling. There is a learning curve to springs so a simple statement, for example “I want to make a bicycle of springs,” doesn’t have any easy answers. It is a lot like saying, “I want to make a microprocessor out of transistors“. This project starts with springs roughly the diameter of the old bike tubes, and it is a colossal failure. Try using cooked spaghetti noodles to make a bridge.
The first set of custom springs are not up to the task, but the third round produces something rideable. The result seems to be a ridiculous way to exercise your abs and is approximately a training unicycle mated with a boat anchor.
What makes this a hack? The video is as entertaining as anything [Colin] has made, but that does not make it a hack by itself. The hack is that someone asked a ridiculous question, possibly within reach of alcohol, and the answer came by building the stupid thing. A spring-bicycle could have been simulated six ways from Sunday on an old Android phone, but the adventure extracted was worth the cost of doing it in real life.
Thank you, [Bill] at PirateLabs, for the tip.
“approximately a training unicycle mated with a boat anchor.”
You sir, win the internet for today…
I’d worry more about getting my nether parts caught in the top spring.
If trousers are not an option, may I suggest somenzip ties.
some zip
He’s certainly putting the hours in for his own definition in the dictionary.
Just started the day with this. I’m crying with laughter.
One thing the video doesn’t answer: how does it fare against potholes and actual rough roads?
Judging by the way the front wheel moved when he tried to brake, I’d suggest that if you hit a pothole at any speed it’d launch you half way to orbit. Mind you, it’d probably make an amusing _sproing_ noise when it did it, so maybe that’s ok.
Rough roads… probably about as well as it does smooth roads, “not very well”. Pot holes, I imagine the entire frame compresses and shoots you back out of the hole backwards (or upwards)
Probably worse. A regular bicycle, even a mountain bike, stays in one plane (well, ignoring the front wheel turn). This one…. does not.
Maybe a tension wire in the center of the springs might have some benefit.
Another way to kill yourself loll
The idea has some merit. Racing motorcycles have a frame thats designed to flex when the bike is leaning into a turn, a position where the shock absorbers are not perpendicular to the road.
When I first saw this I thought…man…what a great idea. Then, when I watched his test rides it was quite obvious that it was not such a great idea. Oh well…only one way to know right? Nice article Brian.
“Newton meters of force?” Somebody should have spent a couple more kilograms of time studying intro physics.
The newton metre (also newton-metre, symbol N m or N⋅m) is a unit of torque (also called moment) in the SI system. One newton metre is equal to the torque resulting from a force of one newton applied perpendicularly to the end of a moment arm that is one metre long.
I assume they asked, or meant to ask, about “Newtons per meter”, the units of the spring constant k.
Title of this one should have been ‘Suspension of disbelief.’
Maybe if he tried some leaf springs?
He might next time, but will use actual leaves…