Fred's Bike: Springs Replace Spokes in New Shock-Absorbing Bike Wheel | Autopia

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Springs Replace Spokes in New Shock-Absorbing Bike Wheel | Autopia | Wired.com

The bicycle wheel hasn’t evolved much in the past few hundred years. But a new design cushions bumps with an in-board suspension that promises to save weight, space, and even your behind.
The Loopwheel, a project from UK designer Sam Pearce, surrounds a traditional wheel hub with three folded leaf springs instead of spokes. The setup keeps the rim rigid, but allows the hub to travel more than 1.75 inches to absorb shocks such as hitting uneven pavement or a riding over a curb. The result is a ride that’s less jarring, and that transmits fewer vibrations to the rider’s body.

Pearce got the idea for the Loopwheel while waiting for a flight and watching parents pushing children in strollers over a gap in the flooring. Every time a stroller hit that patch of floor, the child would be jostled forward. A cycling enthusiast, Pearce knew that cyclists had a similar problem to those kids in the airport, so he started drawing up ideas for in-wheel shock absorbers.
After the first wheels came a Kickstarter. With more than a week left to the Loopwheel campaign, Pearce has already raised more than $7,500 over the goal, money that will be used to fund expanded production, including a new system for manufacturing the “loops” more efficiently.
Prototype in-wheel suspensions are nearly as old as the bicycle itself, but the designs always failed because they were too heavy or too flimsy. Pearce’s design is only possible because of the strong, lightweight, carbon composite materials used for the “loop” springs. It also requires disc braking and a wide fork, which is why the initial Loopwheel is designed to fit a particular frame — the Dahon folding bike shown above

Springs Replace Spokes in New Shock-Absorbing Bike Wheel | Autopia | Wired.com

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Bike Quotes

As I get older the tendency to stick my foot up someone's ass is starting to subside. - Fred on Pump Track Pricks

The 29 inch chingaderra rolls best downhill! ~ Fred

I thought of that while riding my bicycle.

~ Albert Einstein on the Theory of Relativity

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving ~ Albert Einstein

If constellations had been named in the 20th century, I suppose we would see bicycles. ~ Prof. Carl Sagan

It never gets easier, you just go faster. ~ Greg LeMond.

~ Charles M. Schulz

The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind. ~ William Saroyan Nobel prize winner

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race. ~ H.G. Wells

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. ~ H.G. Wells

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live. ~ Mark Twain Taming the Bicycle. 1884

PEDAL. Pray Every Day And Listen. ~ Rev. Johannes Myors, The pedaling preacher

The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine. ~John Howard

A bicycle does get you there and more.... And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun. ~Bill Emerson

Until mountain biking came along, the bike scene was ruled by a small elite cadre of people who seemed allergic to enthusiasm. ~Jacquie Phelan

Bicycling is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own. ~Louis J. Helle

The secret to mountain biking is pretty simple. The slower you go the more likely it is you'll crash. ~Julie Furtado

If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on. ~ Lance Armstrong

Never use your face as a brake pad. ~ Jake Watson

Refrain from throwing your bicycle in public. It shows poor upbringing. ~ Jacquie Phelan

When I was sick, I didn't want to die.
When I race, I don't want to lose.
Dying and losing, it's the same thing. ~ Lance Armstrong

"It is no longer a beast of steel,
no it is a friend it is a faithful
and powerful ally against one's worst
enemies. It is stronger than anxiety,
stronger than sadness. It has all the
power of hope." ~  Maurice Leblanc