Post Maker Faire Roma 2013

Hello all,

So not much happened after returning from the Faire other than some thinking about the next prototype. The next prototype will be carried on in collaboration with Mr. Luca Stocchi of Italy, a very interesting person i was lucky to have met at the Faire. So the next idea will include the following:

• brakes
• better support/attachment of leg to the wheel instead of the current ankle support
• Thinking about using bicycle shoes and clips instead of the bulky skate shoes.

Here is a video of me getting better through some intermittent practice :)

Existing products, ideas etc

A very interesting and simply engineered  bicycle!

http://www.environmentteam.com/concept/full-circle-small-bike-with-large-wheels/

Next prototype ideas?

Hello there!
well i have returned from Maker Faire Rome with many ideas, too many to compile and put up. but slowly things are turning on in my mind!

here's an interesting site i found:
http://weburbanist.com/2009/03/03/futuristic-strange-concept-bicycles-designs/

and a very very beautiful concept:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bow-The-Amazing-Bike-Wheel-Bow/

the latter one can be an amazing base for the wheel. So in fact there will be two 20" wheels, for each leg, however one will be cut and bent to fit inside the othere.. the space between the original sized outer wheel and the modified inner wheel wil be fitted with balls to act as a giant bearing!!! interesting isn't it?

solves the problems of load distribution (that was causing a lot of friction in prototype 4) and also the jeans getting stuck in the upper parts of the skate(the upper wheel in prototype 4).

should be light weight too i guess?

another interesting and similar concept:
http://www.toxel.com/tech/2010/03/24/skateboard-with-hubless-wheels/

dont know if its a practical idea, yet.

Maker Faire Rome !!

The Leg-a-wheel booth at the faire

The first people to try. Have fun :)

And a more serious one here! 

Benjamin trying the Leg-A-Wheel proto 4

Here is my colleague Benjamin giving a go at the prototype. Observations:

1. Impossible with current design due to excessive friction
2. Suggested the base wheels to be higher up to create more stability
3. and his jeans gets caught up in the top wheels

By the way, he's an experienced inline skater.  

First real testing of Prototype 4

As you can hear the noise, its because the rubber wheels are rubbing on the aluminium frame. Ila had a wonderfully simple solution, just a few drops of oil. The huge amount of friction that allowed the noise to be made and very importantly allowed me to walk, however vanished with the oil. Luckly we took the video before applying the oil cause after it, it was just impossible to stand on and walk with the smoothest ride possible (if i could i mean). So now the picture is clear, its not as easy as it seems from the video. I'll need to put brakes onto the wheels, to learn atleast.

The team and place!

Well the most important part of this project is the team here:

• Nicola Calitaux, Technican at TFL, UCLouvain - the real technical and ideation partner for all of the project
• Ila Gupta , my wife, sounding board and the real support behind this idea and the maker.
• Others include
• Julien Vervotte, Technicain at TFL, UCLouvain
• Benjamin Berger, colleague at the lab, also responsible for some important ideas and discussions
• and that subir over there ;)

All the work has taken place at the Thermodynamics and Fluid mechanics Laboratory (TFL) at Université catholique de Louvain at Belgium, with the amazing freedom allowed by my supervisor Prof Hervé Jeanmart.