Articulated handlebar (bicycle)
Articulated steering is a construction of bicycles with articulated steering , which occurs mainly on short recumbent bikes . It usually is a two-wheeled vehicle with front wheel drive , in which the tax warehouse is located under the seat and mitschwenkt the bottom bracket when steering.
Driving these bikes has to be learned, because steering is fundamentally different from conventional bikes. Steering is not done with the arms and a conventional bicycle handlebar , but rather by shifting weight and moving sideways from the hips. Recumbent bikes with articulated steering have the advantage that they can be driven completely hands-free.
history
With his ChaCha-Bike (Charming Chair-Bike), Wim van Wijnen built a recumbent bike with front-wheel drive and articulated steering, which Johan Vrielink further developed (changes to the frame, smaller wheels for the suspension). After a number of improvements, series production began in spring 1988 and ran until 2006. In April 1989 the company Flevobike (named after the Dutch province of Flevoland ) was founded and grew rapidly. In addition to the two-wheeled Flevo-Bike , they also developed a three-wheeled Flevo-Trike . The best-known representatives of articulated handlebars are next to Johan Vrielinks Flevobike (Netherlands 1986) the Airbike by Uwe Schmidt (Germany 1993) and the Python by Jürgen Mages (Germany 2003). The Snaix bike is the implementation of the articulated handlebar principle on an upright bike, while the super bike implements this principle in the handbike version. Further developments of these concepts, especially for wheel geometry, were patented for Friedrich Grimm in 1999.
Web links
- Information about the Flevobike and its variations
- python
- Snaix bike
- Super Bike (a Knicklenker- Handbike )