The Swing Bike is a brand of bicycle which allowed for steering at both the front wheel and the rear wheel. [1] [2] The design was patented by Ralph Belden in 1974, [3] brought to market in 1975, and discontinued by 1978. [4]
A swingbike or swing bike (common noun) has been genericized to come to mean any bike with a second steering axis in front of the saddle. [5] [6] A new bicycle by the same name has been launched by Americas Bike Co. in San Diego, California. [7]
The original Swing Bike was in the wheelie bike style, [8] and the Swing Bike company also offered a normally-steered BMX bike in 1977. [9] An early working name for the Swing Bike as Pivicycle. [10]
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A bicycle rider is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
A tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement, not the number of riders. Patents related to tandem bicycles date from the mid 1880s. Tandems can reach higher speeds than the same riders on single bicycles, and tandem bicycle racing exists. As with bicycles for single riders, there are many variations that have been developed over the years.
A recumbent bicycle is a bicycle that places the rider in a laid-back reclining position. Recumbents are available in a wide range of configurations, including: long to short wheelbase; large, small, or a mix of wheel sizes; overseat, underseat, or no-hands steering; and rear wheel or front wheel drive. A variant with three wheels is a recumbent tricycle.
A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a human-powered three-wheeled vehicle.
A bicycle brake reduces the speed of a bicycle or prevents the wheels from moving. The two main types are: rim brakes and disc brakes. Drum brakes are less common on bicycles.
There have been many human powered vehicles designed and constructed specifically for transporting loads since their earliest appearance in the 20th century. They are referred to variously depending on the number of wheels — typically two, three, or four — and by their specific use. Adjectives used to describe the tasks to which the bicycles, dicycles, tricycles, or quadracycles are put include cargo cycles, freight cycles, box cycles, carrier cycles, and so on. Sometimes they are also called cycletrucks, which uses a sense of the word 'truck' predating the automobile.
A bicycle fork is the part of a bicycle that holds the front wheel.
Vehicles that have two wheels and require balancing by the rider date back to the early 19th century. The first means of transport making use of two wheels arranged consecutively, and thus the archetype of the bicycle, was the German draisine dating back to 1817. The term bicycle was coined in France in the 1860s, and the descriptive title "penny farthing", used to describe an "ordinary bicycle", is a 19th-century term.
A swing axle is a simple type of independent suspension, almost always for the rear axles, designed and patented by Edmund Rumpler in 1903. This was a revolutionary invention in automotive suspension, allowing driven (powered) wheels to follow uneven road surfaces independently, thus enabling the vehicle's wheels to maintain better road contact and holding; plus each wheel's reduced unsprung weight means their movements have less impact on the vehicle as a whole. The first automotive application was the Rumpler Tropfenwagen, later followed by the Mercedes 130H/150H/170H, the Standard Superior, the Volkswagen Beetle and its derivatives, the Chevrolet Corvair, and the roll-over prone M151 jeep amongst others.
A softail motorcycle intentionally looks like vintage motorcycles with a rigid hard-tail frame that has a triangle of steel tubes at the rear axle, as on a bicycle frame, but on a Softail these tubes are actually a triangular swingarm, with the shock absorber(s) hidden, as opposed to clearly visible regular twin shocks on both sides of the rear wheel on standard bikes. Since the introduction of the Harley-Davidson FXST Softail in 1983 as a registered trademark of the Motor Company, softail has become a genericized trademark for other models of cruiser motorcycles with rear suspensions hidden for retro style reasons. This was done even though the rear wheel was often hidden behind bags or exhaust pipes.
Dirtsurfing is the sport of riding a Dirtsurfer brand inline board. This new Australian boardsport is correctly known as inline boarding because Dirtsurfer is a trademark protected brand name.
A kick scooter is a human-powered street vehicle with a handlebar, deck, and wheels propelled by a rider pushing off the ground with their leg. Today the most common scooters are made of aluminum, titanium, and steel. Some kick scooters made for younger children have 3 to 4 wheels and are made of plastic and do not fold. High-performance kickbikes are also made. A company that had once made the Razor Scooters revitalized the design in the mid-nineties and early two-thousands. Three-wheel models where the frame forks into two decks are known as Y scooters or trikkes.
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 include balancing, steering, braking, accelerating, suspension activation, and vibration. The study of these motions began in the late 19th century and continues today.
A motorcycle fork connects a motorcycle's front wheel and axle to its frame, typically via a yoke, also known as a triple clamp, which consists of an upper yoke joined to a lower yoke via a steering stem, a shaft that runs through the steering head, creating the steering axis. Most forks incorporate the front suspension and front brake, and allow the front wheel to rotate about the steering axis so that the bike may be steered. Most handlebars attach to the top clamp in various ways, while clip-on handlebars clamp to the fork tubes, either just above or just below the upper triple clamp.
Bicycle suspension is the system, or systems, used to suspend the rider and bicycle in order to insulate them from the roughness of the terrain. Bicycle suspension is used primarily on mountain bikes, but is also common on hybrid bicycles.
The sideways bike is an invention, patented in 2005, by Michael Killian, a software engineer from Dublin. He was inspired by his view that snowboarding offered greater artistic potential to skiing, and decided to design a snowboard equivalent based on the conventional bicycle. The result: a bike ridden sideways with the rider operating both wheels. The bike, unlike a conventional bike, uses front-to-back balance like a snowboard. Conventional bikes use left-to-right balance, like skis. The bike is aimed at the youth market and has won a number of invention awards.
A wheelie bike, also called a dragster, muscle bike, high-riser, spyder bike or banana bike, is a type of stylized children's bicycle designed in the 1960s to resemble a chopper motorcycle and characterized by ape hanger handlebars, a banana seat with sissy bar, and small wheels. Notable examples include the Schwinn Sting-Ray and Krate lines and the Raleigh Chopper line. Other notable manufacturers and retailers that offered models include AMF, CCM, Columbia, Huffy, Iverson, J. C. Penney, Malvern Star, Monark, Murray, Ross, Sears, and Vindec.
A folding bicycle is a bicycle designed to fold into a compact form, facilitating transport and storage. When folded, the bikes can be more easily carried into buildings, on public transportation, and more easily stored in compact living quarters or aboard a car, boat or plane.
A two wheeled, rider propelled vehicle having both wheels pivotably mounted upon a medial principal frame.
Kyle Drennan rides his swing bike in the Hockley County Celebration parade in Levelland Saturday.
This is George Aitken riding his swing bike in the Canada Day parade in Cambridge, Ontario.
Americas Bike Co. is banking on its hinged design to catch on with riders.