A Jyrobike (formerly known as Gyrobike) is a
bicycle with a special front wheel designed to make
balancing easier. It was manufactured and sold by a company of the same name.
The special front wheel contains a rotating
flywheel
A flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy; a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, as ...
driven by a rechargeable-battery-powered motor that spins at high
RPM
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
s like a
gyroscope. This flywheel spins significantly faster than the front wheel rolls and acts as a gyroscope, even when the bike is moving slowly, such as when the rider is starting. The flywheel causes the front wheel to respond to a lean by
precessing, that is the front wheel turns toward the direction of the lean, which can help provide stability at low speeds, whether riding straight or turning.
Jyrobike technology was intended to help children and adults learning to ride a bicycle, and people lacking confidence in their balance and mobility skills.
History
The inventors of the technology which the original Gyrowheel was based on were Debbie Sperling, Hannah Murnen, Nathan Sigworth, and Augusta Niles, who conceived and tested the concept between 2004 and 2007 as part of a graduate project at the
Thayer School of Engineering
Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth (Dartmouth Engineering) offers graduate and undergraduate education in engineering sciences at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The school was established in 1867 with funds from C ...
. Their invention won the 2006 Break Through Award from Popular Mechanics.
In 2010 Daniella Reichstetter, a fellow Dartmouth student, licensed the technology from the inventors and set up a company based in San Francisco, USA called The Gyrobike Inc. The company launched a working model based on the initial invention, called Gyrowheel, which was a stand-alone front wheel toy accessory that replaced the conventional bicycle front wheel. The company communicated ‘once attached, Gyrowheel transforms a normal bicycle into a Gyrobike’. This message led to confusion because the inventors never engineered a complete Gyrobike bicycle nor did the company sell bicycles or Gyrobikes, but only the front wheel. Gyrowheel was manufactured in 12" and 16" wheel sizes, and was marketed as a toy accessory for children.
Gyrowheel was rated a “Top Toy” of Toy Fair 2010 in New York by industry.
In October 2013 UK-based entrepreneur Robert Bodill acquired the intellectual property rights, then raised capital funding and set up Jyrobike Limited in December 2013. The Gyrobike trademark is owned by Jyrobike Limited, which holds global patents for a “system for providing gyroscopic stabilization to a two- wheeled vehicle”,
protecting the invention.
In 2014, Jyrobike launched a
Kickstarter campaign that raised $185,818 from 872 supporters. On November 25, 2014, Team Jyrobike announced a 9-month delay in delivering bikes. That was their last update. As of July, 2019, the jyrobike.com url is no longer active.
See also
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Balance bicycle
A balance bicycle, run bike or no pedal bike or dandy horse is a training bicycle that helps children learn balance and steering. It has no foot pedals, no drivetrain, no chain, no gears, no gear shifters, no derailleurs, and no freewheel.
Desig ...
*
Bicycle and motorcycle dynamics
Bicycle and motorcycle dynamics is the science of the motion of bicycles and motorcycles and their components, due to the forces acting on them. Dynamics falls under a branch of physics known as classical mechanics. Bike motions of interest ...
*
Bicycle safety
Bicycle safety is the use of road traffic safety practices to reduce risk associated with cycling. Risk can be defined as the number of incidents occurring for a given amount of cycling. Some of this subject matter is hotly debated: for example ...
*
Gyrocar
A gyrocar is a two-wheeled automobile. The difference between a bicycle or motorcycle and a gyrocar is that in a bike, dynamic balance is provided by the rider, and in some cases by the geometry and mass distribution of the bike itself, and the g ...
References
External links
Official Website{{dead link, date=September 2022
Patent information
Cycle types
Physical activity and dexterity toys