August 18, 2006
The Treadmill Bike Possibility
As per THIS VIDEO about the Treadmill Bike, Faye Saunders had this to say:
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At 6:54 AM -0700 8/18/06, Faye Saunders wrote:
I'm trying to understand why anyone would need this. Why not just walk or run without the bike? Or am I just being way too practical here?
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While Tom Kabat of Woodenbikes.com had an all together different reaction:
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Thanks Martin,
I love it.
It may be the ergonomic breakthrough I've been looking for. Finally, a way to keep my running shoes clean.
If it could be made to be efficient (like a bike drive chain is) it would offer a great way to ride to the gym.
It could be made lower as a three wheeler. Easy to mount and dismount.
I actually do think it could be semi practical for about 1-3% of the 90% of people who reject bike usage for now. (That is a market 10% to 30% as big as bikes!) Basically, I see it and the bike as both being leg levers that accelerate the user beyond pedestrian speeds using human power.
Maybe built low as a bike or trike using Max Chen’s parallelogram connected wheel setup to lower the deck and keep it from scraping in the turns. If it was geared up to give me about two strides of distance for each one stride of effort I would be able to run like the wind. That would be fun! I see human powered chariot races in the future.
I might even enjoy an electric assist for a human hybrid. Put a bigger motor on it and a fairing and give me a carpool access sticker and we have a transportation revolution.
Of course we could always go about developing it the other way and see if Segway will add an electric treadmill to their segway. so the user could get exercise while segging… but somehow that seems almost silly. J
Keep an eye out for tossed treadmills.
-Tom