The Cheetah: Making Recumbent Bicycles Cool (and Scary)
Industrial designer Pablo Lopez from firm DIBRUTAL came up with the Pardo, short for guepardo (Spanish for cheetah). Designed for Innovar, an Argentinian innovations contest, it’s a recumbent of sorts in that you are mostly horizontal and there are pedals. That’s where the similarities end.
The rider lies prone, face down, and pushes on the pedals simultaneously…like doing a frog leap…to propel the bike forward. Not content just to make these pretty concept renderings, Lopez actually built one! See it, and a usage diagram, after the break…
It’s almost like a reverse rowing machine…talk about some serious core work, the motion combines a squat with a crunch with leg raises.
It even folds up for easy storage.
Why a cheetah? Says the designer: “Parting with the fascination us human beings have with nature and our eagerness for imitating it, I began to study the cheetah and its habits during hunt. From then on I wanted to know what the cheetah feels on the hunt process and wanted to try to transmit that through my design.”
More on Treehugger.com, via Wired.
Comments
What about turning and steering? It’s a habit I have developed over the years.
I think I would feel too much like I was humping the thing. Plus, the pulsing acceleration wouldn’t be the most efficient. Maybe if the pedals worked independently, it would feel more natural, like a stair-stepper. Cool design, though and props to him for building it! Let us know if there is ever a video!
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that is actually a tricycle rather then a bicycle. (Insert Brittany Spears joke here.)
This looks like a great product. Now I can finally go careening down hills face-first, brakeless, with little to no ability to steer. I just need to sell my helmet so I can run out and buy one.