Walking Bicycle

From the Author: We recently finished our wild project to build a walking bicycle.. We started this crazy technical adventure about 8 months ago in the fall of 2014. J.P. had an idea to adapt Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest leg system to a bicycle. He made a quick model and 3d print of the idea in Sketchup and showed it around to some friends. Roy Wright came on board as the chief fabricator. Soon after, Blaine Elliott joined the team and added his special attention to technical details.

We spent about 3 hours a night, on Monday through Wednesday each week, slowly progressing through layout, material buying, mockups, jigs, cutting, welding, and bolting. In the end we had over 400 custom made parts, and couldn’t believe the thing actually worked.

We then submitted it to the 2015 Santa Barbara Solstice Parade where it was met with great interest and enthusiasm. It was a very rewarding and fun experience for us all, and has inspired many around town to work on projects of their own. We are now looking forward to some more exciting industrial design projects.

[Via Carv]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *