You think you know how to ride a bike?

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The discussion centers around a video showcasing a modified bicycle designed to explore balance and stability while riding. A key point raised is the misconception regarding the gyroscopic effect of bicycle wheels in maintaining balance, which is deemed insignificant. The modification involved a gearing system that inversely affects steering—turning right causes the front wheel to turn left, creating instability. Participants speculate on whether riders can learn to switch between traditional and modified riding techniques seamlessly. Additionally, there are comments on the challenges faced by architects in designing practical structures, highlighting a perceived disconnect between design and construction realities.
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Fantastic :smile:

 
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Yeah, I saw this earlier. It's really great. He got one thing wrong though when he mentioned the gyroscopic action of the bicycle wheel spin helping you to maintain your balance. This has been shown to be false or insignificant in the least.

http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~hemh/gyrobike.htm
 
I only watched a little bit of the video. Was something done to that bike to make it less stable?
 
I bet his son could switch back and forth fairly easily.
 
This begs for the question whether you can learn riding both simultaneously. In the sense that you could (almost) instantaneously switch between the systems.

Big piece of wisdom btw, welders being smarter than engineers.
I remarkably often hear from friends in construction about architects drawing beautiful houses but impossible to build (without ugly hacks).
 
berkeman said:
I only watched a little bit of the video. Was something done to that bike to make it less stable?

Yes, they put a simple gearing system on the front fork so that turning right made it turn the wheel left and vice versa. It was a pretty clever adjustment. I think everything was the same as a normal bike.

I've seen other bike mods where they've changed the front fork angle of attack in various ways to introduce an instability.
 
berkeman said:
Was something done to that bike to make it less stable?

Scroll to 0:42.
 
That guy at 1:46 apparently has an altered bike too.
 

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