Unchaining the Bicycle
For over 100 years the bicycle has always had a chain. But some engineers are questioning whether a chain is really necessary at all.
An Hungarian inventor has come up with a solution to the age old problem of messy bicycle chains — a Stringbike. It rides like any other bikes but doesn’t have any chains. It operates like a yo-yo with a set of strings on either side of the back wheel.
The rotation of the pedals forces a swinging arm to swing forward and backward around its shaft. The forward segment of this motion pulls a rope wound around a drum on the rear shaft that makes the wheel to rotate. As the two sides move in mirror symmetry, there is always one arm that moves forward, thus the rear wheel is always driven.
Invented by Dr. Robert Kohlheb, an engineer at University of Szeged in Hungary, the Stringbike is geared toward urban bikers who are using the two-wheeled vehicles for commuting. A chain-less bike means less messy maintenance. But the Stringbike does carry a hefty $3,400 price tag. Currently, Schwinn-Csepel in Budapest is manufacturing the new bike.
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