By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Ah, those days when you first learn to ride a bicycle. Most start with training wheels, but eventually have to take them off and deal with the scrapes and cuts you first get when you start to learn to balance on two wheels. GyroBike, a start-up spun-off from Dartmouth College, aims to make those “boo-boos” a thing of the past. When a child starts to lose balance, a gyroscope attached to the front wheel corrects for the error and stabilizes the bike.
“It actually makes it easier to learn to ride a bike because this is actually how people ride and recover from falling,” said Errik Anderson, a venture capital consultant who is helping the company.
Training wheels, according to Anderson, are unnatural. They prevent a bike from falling over, but don’t teach kids about balance. By contrast, the GyroBike wheel relies on natural physical forces. Source: News.com
There’s a video on this page, as well as more detailed info on just how it works.
We Say: Hmm … time to start shorting your Johnson & Johnson stock because of a potential for less Band-Aid sales? Seriously, though, at $39, this is a pretty good deal. Expect these to show up later this year or early next year.
Why don’t we just pack our kids up in big rubber protective balls? that way they’ll never have to experience anything of those nasty initiations into the real world that we all had to “endure”.
/rolleyeyes
Things like this have been around for some time. A gyro out of control can cause more problems. So why would you give it to a child?
The spinning mass also will give the bike some other problems. When I was in Australia I visited a science museum. There they had a seat that pivoted and at the center chest level was a steel wheel. You spin that wheel, and turn it in a direction you want and it will pull you there. Do you want that force around your kid?
Training wheels are cheaper, and bumps are normal.
I am not knocking these Ivy leaguers. I think that this was not thought out at the practical and safety level. The wheel it self is a gyro but lighter, with out the extra mass, and generally has a break. Gyros are a great thing but don’t try putting them on thing not needed.
I know I have come up with some good things to find out that it is not practical, or was done before and not used for that reason. Two wheel drive bikes yes they have them now but back in 1989 they did not, I said, weed whacker shaft drive and gears rigged up to the pedal mechanism. I was told by my teacher good though but not practical, and to heavy and costly. Maybe I could have been rich but considering two wheel drive bikes have been out for two years, I haven’t seen them at my local store or do you hear of them much. No. So the question is why? when safety, coast will dictate the sales.
The hope of the gyro bike pending for purchase has brightened my daughter’s future. She has struggled with balance problems resulting from being grossly premature. Now I have the hope that we may ride bikes together yet. At twelve yrs. old, it only gets harder to learn as she gets taller.