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walkcycle

something between running and cycling
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This vehicle consists of 2 pedals attached to the rim of a wheel. That's it !

So how does it work ?

You attach your shoes onto the pedals and you start rotating them. Since the pedals are attached to the rim of the wheel, the wheel will also rotate and you will move. But !

Because the pedals are attached to the rim, your foot will just touch the ground when the pedal is at it's lowest point, as such, you can also push yourself forward against the ground as you do while running.

Can you imagine it ? :-)

mr Dries, Aug 19 2009

Legway http://cache.gawker...09/04/legway_01.jpg
[goldbb, Aug 19 2009]

Legway video http://www.viddler....ngadget/videos/390/
[goldbb, Aug 19 2009]

Riding on a single wheel http://www.inewidea...007/07/10/1371.html
[xaviergisz, Sep 30 2009]

Walk cycle http://images.googl...l%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1
Just animated my first walk cycle. It was extraordinarily hard to do. [wagster, Sep 30 2009]

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       what's a click pedal? interesting notion.
po, Aug 19 2009
  

       hmm yes, tx, i don't know how it should be called, but i mean you can attach your shoe to the pedal
mr Dries, Aug 19 2009
  

       you could walk really quickly with metal points to your shoes and do a tap routine :)
po, Aug 19 2009
  

       walking and running aren't circular motions: if the pedals were simply "attached to the rim" you couldn't get anywhere near a full stride... either that or you'd have to bring your knees up to your chest. [+] good start though; it may work with some levers and gears'n'stuff.
FlyingToaster, Aug 19 2009
  

       Isn't the beauty of a bike that it increases your leverage? This wouldn't improve the leverage of walking/running. You'd get the same amount of forward motion per stride as without a wheel. Unless you had levers and gears and stuff.
JackyD, Aug 19 2009
  

       Assuming the axle of the wheel is at knee level, the top of the revolving wheel could cause some uncomfortable friction against certain sensitive areas.
DrWorm, Aug 19 2009
  

       It would be hard to coast. Or hold still and coast. If the wheel were very heavy you could stop working and keep moving, but your feet on the pedals would continue to move up and down along with the wheel. I suppose that might have a certain charm.   

       think, think I the pedals were mounted in a groove on the wheel such that they could move only one direction with respect to the wheel (example - wheel rolls clockwise, pedal attachment can only move counterclockwise) then when you applied pressure to push the pedal in the direction of the wheel (pedal pushed clockwise) you would turn the whole wheel. This would allow coasting on stationary pedals.
bungston, Aug 19 2009
  

       Wouldn't it fall over immediately?
ldischler, Aug 19 2009
  

       It would be wide, and heavy. Sort of like those stone wheels in BC. You could make it out of a car tire. I think it might be good to build the pedals up, so they are very thick to avoid the highcenter problem DrWorm alludes to.
bungston, Aug 19 2009
  

       A friend of mine (who's into wacky bikes like unicycles and recumbents) built exactly this some years back, but without cleats. He used a (IIRC) 15 inch BMX wheel.
It didn't work.
Perhaps if you used ski-boots instead of bike shoes/cleats, as the ankle is the point of weakness, to stop the wheel falling over.
You would get a (small) mechanical advantage if the pedals weren't at the rim, but rather radially in somewhat (think kids trike front wheel).
neutrinos_shadow, Aug 19 2009
  

       [rcarty] gone: posts, annos, halfbaker.... :(
FlyingToaster, Aug 19 2009
  

       I miss [rcarty] too
afinehowdoyoudo, Aug 20 2009
  


 

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