Training wheels

Clever and beautiful design for a learning bike / tricycle from an Industrial Design Professor at Purdue and two of his students.

"Shim, an assistant professor of industrial design, said he and his two collaborators came up with the idea while brainstorming a concept to enter in the 9th International Bicycle Design Competition in Taipei, Taiwan.

He and recent Purdue design graduates Matthew Grossman and Ryan Lightbody traded childhood memories of looking back frantically at their father or mother after they sent them on their way on initial solo rides.

'That was the common thing — looking back to see if your dad is holding your seat, and having that fear of crashing or falling all the time while you're riding,' said Shim, an assistant professor of industrial design whose 4-year-old son is at the tricycle stage.

'So we thought if we could make a tricycle kind of bicycle, it would get that burden off the child's shoulders so he or she could focus on trying to learn to ride.'

The key to their bike, which resembles a trike with crooked wheels while at rest, is a belt with a spring mechanism that pulls the rear wheels inward."

See more of the story here.