An ultimate wheel is a single wheel with two pedals directly connected
I am proud of my first successful engineering project of building a 26"
ultimate wheel.
I did this at no cost using components from a bicycle I scavenged from a skip
and bits and pieces lying around the house and the workplace.
The ultimate wheel is made by shortened crank technology embedded using bolts
and metal plates within a wooden disc that has a bicycle rim screwed to the
circumference.
Specification A. Cranks *2: left & right, aluminium, shortened, 300mm pedal pitch
= 150mm virtual crank length (donated from bicycle)
B. Pedals *2: left & right, 9/16" diameter (donated from bicycle)
C. Rim: 26" diameter (donated from bicycle)
D. Tyre: 26" diameter, 1.75" wide, very worn (donated from bicycle)
E. Inner tube: 26" diameter (donated from bicycle)
F. Rim tape: 26" diameter (donated from bicycle)
G. Ply wood: ¾" wide, painted black (lying around house)
H. Screws *32: for wood (lying around house)
I. Metal plates *4: 1.56mm thick aluminium, 0.15m * 0.15m (acquired from workplace)
J. Bolts *12: M8, 0.04m long (acquired from workplace)
J. Nuts *12: M8 (acquired from workplace)
K. Washers *41: M8 (acquired from workplace)
Weight ~ 4.5kg
Side view of completed ultimate wheel:
Above view of completed ultimate wheel:
This shows the narrow profile and very low q-factor
of the virtual cranks.
Photo proof of ultimate wheel successfully bearing weight:
Video evidence of my ultimate wheel in action:
This footage was recorded after just under 2.5 hours of learning; I was pleasantly
surprised by my progress, as I had heard that an ultimate wheel is really difficult,
so I had low expectations. After a total of 5 hours of learning; I can free
mount fairly consistently, regularly ride nearly 30 meters, and also ride down
kerbs. I next desire to learn to ride backwards then idle. Constructive criticism
and tips on riding the ultimate wheel are welcome.
After a few practices I had to make some modifications to the wheel: reinforce
the metal plating with additional plates (total thickness of plating is now
4.2mm) to limit them bending and also cover the bolt ends with plastic to prevent
my trousers being shredded.
The design of my ultimate wheel was inspired by this guide and a couple of photos. If you are interested
in building an ultimate wheel similar to this, let me know so I can give you
advice on how to overcome the technical problems; such as getting the wood perfectly
round, and getting the pedals perpendicular.
I got my interest in the ultimate wheel from Brian Mackenzie's 36" extreme ultimate wheel movie,
and I am now in the process of building a 36" ultimate wheel based on this, although this
is proving more complicated than I originally anticipated.
