When a kid learns to ride a bike, it normally goes like this: First, training wheels. These keep you upright, but make it impossible to bank into turns and stop the bike from handling like a lean-able two-wheeler. They do, however, build confidence.
Second, the “dad sessions”. This involves dad running along behind the now training wheel-free bike and holding the saddle. He lets go for increasingly longer moments until the kid doesn’t wobble anymore. Kid rides off down the street, looks back to see dad 100 yards away, kid falls off. Repeat.
But take a look at the Gyrowheel, which promises to let kids learn on their own, and in as little as half an hour. The wheel replaces the front wheel of a tiny child’s’ bike and has a spinning disc inside. Powered for up to three hours by a rechargeable battery, the disk spins fast enough to keep the wheel upright, even when joined to a child-bearing bike. If you have ever taken a standard bike wheel off a bike and spun it fast, you’ll know the effect. It can be balanced by one finger under one side of the axle, and if you try to turn the wheel by the axle with both hands, it twists off in a completely different direction.
As you can see in the demo video shot at this year’s Interbike show, the wheel has an almost spooky ability to resist even kicks and shoves. We are especially creeped out by the bike when it makes its way across the show floor, riderless but upright. And check out the slow-motion fall when the wheel rolls to a halt and ever-so-gently lets itself down.
The speed of the internal disk can be adjusted to alter the gyroscopic effect, letting you turn it down as the kid gets better at riding. And because of the gyroscopic precession, you actually get the stability felt at high speed at the low puttering speeds at which scared kids will actually ride. And did we mention the glowing light inside which, although it is there to indicate charge and power status in the battery, is in fact baby’s first low-rider accessory, giving a whirling rim-light to his her sweet, sweet ride.
We love the idea, especially as the bike stays as a two wheeler and will handle accordingly. The only downside is that the kids can learn to ride in an afternoon, meaning that it might be better to rent these rather than sell them. The 12-inch Gyrowheel should be in US shops on December 1st, with the 16-inch arriving son after. International rollout (ahem) should be complete by the end of 2010. Prices are still a secret. Rumors that the company will be making a hydraulic kit to let the bike jump up and down are completely made up.
Product page [Gyrobike via Bike Commuters]
