It’s often said that one should not reinvent the wheel, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot change how the use of said wheel should be interpreted. After initially taking the rather zany concept of a monowheel for a literal ride, [Sam Barker] decided to shift gears, did a ‘what if’ and slapped a second monowheel next to the first one to create his diwheel vehicle. Using much thicker steel for the wheels and overall much more robust construction than for his monowheel, the welding could commence.
It should be said here that the concept of a diwheel, or dicycle, isn’t entirely new, but the monowheel – distinct from a unicycle – is much older, with known builds at least as far back as the 19th century. Confusing, self-balancing platforms like Segways are also referred to as ‘dicycles’, while a diwheel seems to refer specifically to what [Sam] built here. That said, diwheels are naturally stable even without gyroscopic action, which is definitely a big advantage.
The inner frame for [Sam]’s diwheel is built out of steel too, making it both very robust and very heavy. High-tech features include suspension for that smooth ride, and SLS 3D-printed nylon rollers between the inner frame and the wheels. After some mucking about with a DIY ‘lathe’ to work around some measurement errors, a lot more welding and some questionable assembly practices, everything came together in the end.
This is just phase one, however, as [Sam] will not be installing pedals like it’s an old-school monowheel. Instead it’ll have electrical drive, which should make it a bit less terrifying than the Ford Ka-based diwheel we featured in 2018, but rather close to the electric diwheel called EDWARD which we featured back in 2011. We hope to see part two of this build soon, in which [Sam] will hopefully take this beast for its first ride.
“In “The Entity”, Mr. Garrison, tired of inefficient and frustrating airline check-ins, decides to invent his own vehicle. Inspired by watching singer Enrique Iglesias’ sexualized singing on TV and by gyroscopes, he invents the gyroscope-powered monowheel IT (supposedly a parody of the Segway, which was code-named “IT”, although this episode aired before the unveiling of the Segway Scooter).”
‘This is awful, but it’s better than the airlines.’
Doesn’t Di- and Bi- mean the same thing?
I always interpret Di- as both present, and Bi- as one or the other.
Bistable for instance gives two points where a system is stable, but never at the same time :)
Sooo… bicycle?
Seeing the kids go down the street doing a wheelie most times…. :P
The “di-” prefix is Greek. “Bi-” is Latin. They basically mean the same thing in current usage. Lots of different root languages in English.
Yeah, English IS quite literally a “bastard” language, lol…
Funny enough, “cycle” comes form Greek Kuklos for circle or wheel, so a bicycle should be called a dicycle if we’re trying to be consistent.. which we aren’t
had really needs to step up their weird vehicle game. this one is cool and all but…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZj0L0CtNqU
this is my new vehicle channel while project binky figures out electronics design.
You must be a bicephalous then.
I love the emergency brake on that one.
Then a Bi-cycle can have two wheels, but only one at each time? :-D
Wheelie and stoppie.
Or why not Schrödinger’s bicycle it can have two wheels and not have two wheels all at the same time
without gyroscopic stabilisation or other neat trick, I doubt the acceleration and breaking capabilities to be enough to make this vehicle practical …
Google also had a di-wheel… Or was it Segway??!
This kind of thing is only self stabilizing at very low speeds with half flat tires.
When moving at any reasonable speed, you will need a PID controller to keep the rider and motor and battery at a user controllable angle to the ground, just like a Segway.
Still better than the airlines.