Man Reinvents The Wheel

Guan Baihua has reinvented the wheel, oddly. The 50-year-old retired Chinese military officer has patented a bicycle with odd-sided wheels. The bike took him 18 months to develop and features a front wheel that is a pentagon and a back wheel that is a triangle. "There are too many identical mass-manufactured things. More and more, people like weird and rarely seen stuff. Making this bike gives people an alternative," he said. A single-cube ice tray, a hammer featuring a self-lubricating handle, and a social networking site are rumored to be Gaun's next big projects.

Meh

[MrLogic17]

Back when I was a kid, Mr. Wizard was showing off a whole bunch of "equal diameter" shapes. Rolls just fine, but since the axis (or axel in this case) moves around you get a rough ride.

Re:

[Swizec]

If only we had a way to develop a mechanism to counteract the variations in relative distance between the rider's center of gravity and a perfectly flat horizontal surface. I think if I ever invent such a system I'll file a patent under "suspension". That's bound to make me rich.

Poul Anderson beat you to it

[Aranykai]

Back in 1963 in a story titled Three Cornered Wheel.

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[v1]

If you think about it a bit, it's entirely possible to make the axel move too, since you have a stationary point relative to the rotation. (the bicycle frame) Imagine a raced mechanism at the hub, with an axel hole offset from its center. I'd have to think about it for a bit to see how it'd have to be constructed, but I'm confident it's possible. Should make for a smooth ride. There would be a lot of friction at that spot, you'd have to find a way to bearing it.

It'd almost be entertaining enough to just

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[clone53421]

LOL'd when I read your sig.

a few things

[Pharago]

i'd like to see that taking a high speed turn or two if it mades it the first time, and how the wheels' shape affects it's braking ability

I approve.

[Kingrames]

I approve of his design only because he used a prime number for the number of sides on the wheel.

Not new

[Lord Lode]

It's not a new idea to have a bycicle with non circular wheels and it has been built before. So how can he get a patent for that? There's prior art.