Every now and then, there comes an invention that changes our perception of things completely. It might too far away for us to remember, but the invention of the wheel was one of them. Another such invention might be here and surprisingly, it is another wheel.
Revolve is a 26-inch spoked foldable wheel and its commercial availability will open many new doors for foldable bicycles, foldable wheelchairs and other vehicles that need to be transported in a compact form. “I didn’t design a wheel for single bicycle, but a wheel for many different products that can have the same full-sized bicycle wheel, but can now be folded and reduced in size in many different ways,” said Andrea Mocellin, founder of Revolve Wheel.
The concept of folding wheels has eluded designers ever since the concept of foldable bicycles was introduced. They use smaller sized wheels to counter the problem. The Revolve wheel can solve that problem as it can provide the full 26-inch wheel and folds to one third its height.
“It has been three years of complete immersion in the project,” Mocellin told New Atlas. “The patented design was reached after several hundred 3D models and dozens of physical prototypes as I attempted to get the most accurate and efficient folding mechanism.”
He continued to say, “It was conceived as an enabling technology, and when folded, the side wheels that can be added as either traditional wheels or omnidirectional wheels are also designed to enable new ways of making better folding vehicles that can be used and transported in different ways. The aim is to offer the enabling technologies to open new frontiers for the future of foldable vehicles.”
Andrea has lived in a number of major European cities, as well as Shanghai, New York and travels routinely with a folding bicycle. He has travelled the bike path of those cities and the roads so he has a good idea of the different kind of vehicles out there that can benefit from his invention.
“I have experienced so many folding bicycles with small wheels that are complicated and ugly when they are closed,” said Mocellin. “I wanted to ensure my wheel was beautiful to look at when it was closed. The people who will use my wheels will store their bicycle inside their apartment, and they do not want ugly folded bicycles to be stored inside their living space.”
His invention was based on his annoyance of the existing foldable bikes. “I many times got really annoyed with existing folding bikes because when they are small and light, they invariably have small wheels, and that severely limits what they can do. In an urban environment, there are gutters and steps and cracks in the pavement and obstacles that are a problem for small wheels … and I also wanted the speed and practicality of a large wheel.”
The new wheel will most definitely be able to help a number of companies with their products and we might see a redesign of a number of different products soon. You can see what Andrea had to say about his wheel in the video below:
