Reinventing the wheel - this time, to absorb shocks!

The Israelis have reinvented the wheel; and this time it's been redesigned to absorb shocks for smooth and soft rides. Gilad Wolf, a farmer, broke his pelvis about 6 years ago and went on to design a new type of suspension system for the wheelchair. Instead of opting for the traditional approach, he decided to fit the shock absorbers right into the wheels and now #-Link-Snipped-#, the company Gilad is a board member, has refined his invention to produce new type of wheel. They're calling it Acrobat wheel. The wheel was introduced about 2 years ago, but SoftWheel's now designed a bike that uses this new wheel technology.


The working principle has remained the same. There are three cylindrical shock absorbers radiating from the the hub towards the rim. This approach totally eliminates the need of spokes. The absorbers have been designed to be absolutely rigid unless the shock reaches a certain threshold. The user can decide what this threshold should be; based on individual needs and can easily be configured. The wheel functions normally on smooth roads. However as soon as obstacles are encountered, the selective suspension system comes into play to provide the cushioning effect. The hub shifts is location from the center to minimize the impact and gets back to its position as soon as the obstacle has been overcome.

The company plans to introduce the Acrobat wheel in markets in the fourth quarter of this year and price it at about $2000 for a pair. There's no concrete information available about the commercial launch of the bikes using these wheel. All the mechanical engineers on CE may start brainstorming about more innovative approach to shock absorbers and advantages/disadvantages of this new system. We look forward to your ideas and opinions.