Do you still ride a bike or do you already kwiggel?

[Skybird]

From 2016, at that year the development had taken them 7 years.






Beat the time if you can!

[Rockstar]

That Kwiggle looks like a great bicycle but seems to me made specifically for transportation in the confines of a city after a bus or train takes you there.

The larger the wheel diameter, the further it can travel over one revolution of the wheel. To find that distance in inches, use this formula, as it will give you the circumference of the wheel: (from radius) C=2pi×r where r is half the diameter.

For a 26″ wheel, this would be 13″. Thus: C=2×3.1415×13. As a result, you would get C=6.283×13=81.68. For each revolution of a 26″ wheel, it will travel 81.68 inches. The wheels distance of travel will always be its circumference. Because of this, the larger a wheel is, the faster a vehicle may go for a given rpm. There are limits though, and drawbacks.

A larger wheel is harder to accelerate and resists axis changes more, which means they hinder steering. Also the larger the wheel, the easier it maintains speed, which can increase highway range. The larger wheel rolls over larger obstacles easier, making for a smoother ride and less energy lost overcoming the obstacle. - Owner at Mitchell's BikeWorks

Not saying one design is better than the other as each has their own pros and cons. What matters is that Kwiggle meets yours needs and most importantly that you have fun riding it. Any bicycle is better than no bicycle at all. It’s gets you out of the house and promotes good health. Well, as long as you don’t get run over by a big truck going down a hill with no brakes.

[Skybird]

Yes, it is heavily depending on smooth track surfaces such as tarmac, asphalt etc, it is not for MBT biking in the woods. And you must spend more caution on looking ahead and check small obstacles on the surface that a normal bike rider woudl not need to care for, but that is not different to the e-scooters that you now can lease in so many cities.


I expect in the beginning I will wag my tail like a walking duck when stand-riding this and get plenty of laughter.


The point is that you do not sit that much on it, but stand: not more than 50% of body weight should rest on the saddle, with normal bikes it is much more. Since you stand almost straight and upright, it is less your muscles pushing the pedals, but your own body weight: as if you ride a normal bike and at a hill lift from the saddle and "stand" in the paddles. Also, the dynamic swinging of the spine, back, shoulders, it is very different than on a normal bike, and more flexible, dynamical.

It is this altered movement pattern hat made me curious, and I imagine it can be great fun.

They claim that you can drive as fast with it as with a normal city or touring bike, speeds of up to 35 km/h they say are absolutely in reach of evberybody, and at hills you may find you reach the top like the others, and as fast: but much less exhausted and breathing not as heavy. The top speeds they measured, was around 60 km/h. Well, I am not eager to try that. Not at all. These days I start to feel alarmed when speeds start to scratch at the 40 km/h mark.



They also did long range multi-day tours and said it is absolutely capable to do that: and even less stressful to body and muscles.


They also claim their materials are such that the wear and tear on this is less than on other bikes, and there is less material degeneration in the chain, sprockets and so forth. Since the sprockets have so few teeth and thus are under big stress, that is surprising, but for the time being I trust their words.

I was thinking occasionally on getting a folding bike as a third bike, but never really "needed" it. This I get now only due to the very different movement body position and movement - I got curious.

And the lightest version weighs only 8.5 kg, although made of flexible special steel! The whole frame they say is designed to be a spring, being flexible, and very much so. The tyres limit the carry weight, not the frame. The frame is safe to not break at up to 250+ kg load. Its the tyres limiting it to something much less, 100 kg in total.

They work on a version with bigger tyres.

I will post when I got it. Could take 10-14 days, they say.

[August]

The only downside seems to be that one looks like an absolute dork riding it.

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by August

The only downside seems to be that one looks like an absolute dork riding it.

I'd expect that to be a major selling point in California.