Tuesday 21 September 2010

Hungarian designers debut Stringbike, a chain-free bike


"Bicycle designers from Hungary have revealed the Stringbike in Padova, Italy, a bike design that drops the common chain in favour of a wire and pulley system.

While it might seem like a complicated answer to a non-existent problem, the Hungarian creators assure that their symmetric system lends itself to an extra level of comfort and efficiency.

Typical bikes, of course, have a chain and gears on just one side of the bike. The Stringbike creators, at bike manufacturing company Schwinn Csepel Zrt, write that “asymmetry has been the source of lots of problems”. However, other than slipping chains and oily jeans, they’re mostly “unnoticeable” problems, until you’ve tried a symmetrical system first hand.

The new design’s mechanics are considerably more complicated than the traditional chain, and is possibly best left to the video (embedded below) to explain. In the most basic terms, the movement of the pedal forces a swinging arm to move about its shaft, pulling a taught cable around a pulley system. With each push, the task is swapped from the left side to the right.

The Stringbike offers up a few extra advantages over its chain-driven predecessor. The pedal system can be replaced with different discs for separate purposes, for example. Racing and touring could use different shaped and sized parts, to alter performance and function. Plus, the rear wheel can be removed in seconds, for portability.

You’ll also have no grease or oil to deal with, but it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to fix this quite as easily as replacing a knackered chain. The official website mentions that while you will be able to take it an appropriate service location, you can repair a Stringbike at home. Although, that would presumably be the least of your worries if a fast-moving, taught, metal wire lashed off its piston next to your leg. Ouch." Wired.com


38 comments:

  1. do what u want couse a pirate is free!You're a Pirate!!
    cool!suppin bro :)
    check both my blogs are interesting! ;)

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  2. Much less user-repairable, it looks like :-(

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  3. what indie said

    i rather stick with my chain

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  4. It would be nice to not have the chain slip off while mountain biking, but it doesn't seem easy to fix it myself if there were a problem...

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  5. Awesome idea, its ironic I had a dream about something similar the other night.

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  6. this looks awesome, wouldn't mind having one!

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  7. kinda stupid concept in my opinion. why would you want these if you can get your bicycle with different sets of gears already. you just have to push a button and you can go from climbing to racing. and grease problem? c'mon! men love greasy stuff!

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  8. Good for them for trying to improve on a design that has been around for 125 years... I mean, it's interesting, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the first "chainless" design and pretty positive it will never catch on with the biking community.

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  9. Looks really kewl, I wanna try it :)
    Cheers OP ;)

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  10. Would this be the sometimes off topic? :3

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  11. Cool, blog sending some love your way

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  12. That looks awesome! I'd wanna try it.

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  13. Pretty cool.. innovation is always good!

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  14. Strings alone will cost more then the normal bike ^^? Autodesk Inventor is nais!

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  15. What a neat bike. Thanks for posting.

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  16. bikes havent seen such a revolution in a long time lol

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  17. Cool, bikes are nice to ride :-) Have a nice day! Supporting!

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  18. thats pretty sweet, but id be like wut!? if something ever happened to it

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  19. Well it's about bloody time, isn't it? Congratulations on getting 500 followers, by the way!

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  20. sounds and looks awesome

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  21. it's an interesting idea, and keeps the weight of the chain off of you, keeps you free of grease, etc--but I'd be worried about the integrity of that little string....I know kevlar or airplane-cable strings are super-strong, but the idea of one snapping on my leg is still scary :)

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  22. Wow thats awesome, i want a new bike

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  23. Very cool. Hopefully this idea will catch on.

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