Dartmouth students cited for bicycle breakthrough
HANOVER, N.H. --Four Dartmouth College engineering students have come up with a way to help kids avoid the scraped knees and tears that come from learning to ride a bike.
Popular Mechanics Magazine has awarded the four a Breakthrough Award for an invention that helps keep bikes upright, without training wheels.
Deborah Sperling, Hanna Murnen, Nathan Sigworth and Augusta Niles placed a flywheel inside the front rim of a bike. When set to spinning with a drill, the flywheel spins independently of the tire, which makes even slow-moving bikes resist tipping.
The students say fast-moving wheels act as gyroscopes, which resist tipping. But new bike riders tend to go slowly, receiving less benefit from this effect. The metal disc in the GyroBike wheel spins quickly, even when the rim is rolling slowly over the ground.
"Training wheels don't actually train you to ride," said Murnen. "The minute you remove them, you start back at square one."
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On the Net:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4199165.html?page4)
