Boing Boing is much-anticipated daily reading for me, so please take this in the spirit of tough love. I've seen several of these shoe bikes pop up online in the last few months. Is this concept really news anymore?

Boing Boing is not written for you, DBARAK. Its editors write about things that they themselves find interesting. Neither is Boing Boing a "news" site. Something that may have been posted before could be posted again if it seems of interest. The day that BB becomes about so called "news" is the day I stop reading.

Ontopic, that is one shmexy shoecycle.

I've never seen one before. Thanks for posting interesting stuff, BB!

The video depicts the bike being as awkward to ride as I expected. Slightly moreso, actually.

The "spokes" are probably all the same length, but I bet there's a differing distance from the insole to the bottom of the shoe. That wouldn't help - essentially, the wheel is "oblong" as well as not actually being a wheel.

I remember seeing something this about 10 years ago in a kids' comic here in the UK- it was "Billy Whizz", in the Beano. Maybe the artist also saw it?

dr. seussian bikes FTW!

Sounded better than it worked. I would like to see that in the next animated kid's movie that comes out.

This would be cooler if the video didn't prove that it doesn't work.

I had the opportunity to ride a shoe-bike and a few others last year at the Tour De Fat when it came through Flagstaff.

It was a kick in the butt, and less bumpy than the one in this picture and related video.

I think THIS is the bike I rode.

@#2 f t's tr tht Bng Bng dtrs "wrt bt thngs tht thy thmslvs fnd ntrstng," thn thy mst fnd thmslvs ttrly fscntng. f cld twk th blnd, 'd tk bt mr nws, nd gd dl lss slf prmtn nd/r nrcsssm. Bt tht's jst m, nd myb Bng Bng sn't wrttn fr m thr.

This sounds like a primitive version of RadiKS Smartwheels from Snow Crash:

Buy a set of RadiKS Mark II Smartwheels—it's cheaper than a total face retread and a lot more fun. Smartwheels use sonar, laser rangefinding, and millimeter-wave radar to identify mufflers and other debris before you even get honed about them... Each one consists of a hub with many stout spokes. Each spoke telescopes in five sections. On the end is a squat foot, rubber tread on the bottom, swiveling on a ball joint. As the wheels roll, the feet plant themselves one at a time, almost glomming into one continuous tire. If you surf over a bump, the spokes retract to pass over it. If you surf over a chuckhole, the robo-prongs plumb its asphalty depths. Either way, the shock is thereby absorbed, no thuds, smacks, vibrations, or clunks will make their way into the plank or the Converse high-tops with which you tread it.

I really wish these existed.

pretty lame.
good thing it was designed for still photography

that said... if someone would try this with the boingy prosthetic running feet I'd be interested.

TedJohnson,

Why wouldn't someone promote him/herself on his/her own blog?

I can't imagine Antinous. Why, that would be almost as narcissistic as writing about your self in your diary. ;)

Heh.

I'm getting one of these for Wile E. Coyote after he gets out of the hospital. Does ACME sell them?

I remember seeing a shoecycle in a comic strip from the 1930's, probably 'Smokey Stover.' So it's an old idea—and a good one.

Well, see, Chris L, the thing about a successful blog (or magazine, or TV show, or dinner conversation) is to discuss what the audience will find interesting. Otherwise you have no audience. The editors of Boing Boing do a good enough job to keep me coming back several times a day.

My post was written to hopefully avoid ruffling anyone's feathers, but I guess yours are more easily mussed. Sorry.

'Works' about as well as an octahedral wheeled bike

Well, see, DBarak, the thing about BoingBoing is that the Boingers run it for their own amusement. If you also find it amusing, come on in. If not, go read another blog that suits your taste better.

I think it's more important that the editors write/post about what amuses and interests them than try to pander to some mythical consumer. That's the way the television industry went, trying to romance the ratings and spewing out cheap junk.
Whatever the motivation, Boing-Boing usually hits the right balance for me, so I come by pretty much every day. Of course some items interest me more than others, some don't interest me at all, that's the nature of publishing on the net.

It's not that big a deal, Antagonistus. I was just making an observation.

Well, I for one got a serious chuckle from both the photo and the video. I may have seen this idea before, in some drawing or cartoon or somewhere. I was glad to see that someone had actually gone to the trouble of building and trying to ride one. It made me glad.

Then... I went to look at the comments (which I always do). What a buzzkill, the very first one is a negative whiner. It's like the feeling I get get when I've just washed my car, its all shiny and spiffy and some huge bird makes a giant splat on it two hours later.

When I see a post here that doesn't interest me I usually just skip it. I don't splat on other people's enjoyment. Or I guess I could just stop reading comments. (Never, it's addictive).

I love that they posted the video to show how it could work. Now I wish someone would perfect it. That whole two thin wheels thing doesn't work for me and my anti-balance ways...

I also like that every couple of months or so there's the "Why do they post _____(fill in blank) _____(here/so much/other object complement or prepositional phrase)" discussion. I've come to embrace it as a sign that people care about this place, which gives me hope that it will keep staying awesome. I love visiting here and reading the comments; I just wish I had more time to play...

Why waste those wheels on a bike when they could build TWO wacky butt-kicking machines?

I don't like comments abusing boingboing or the staff either, but I think it would be quite disingenuous to describe Dbarak's comment as a "buzzkill" especially since that seems to imply you get your buzzes from reading about shoe bikes.

I mean all he said was he'd seen these before, and didn't consider them news... whether you consider them news or not, or whether you consider boingboing a news site or not doesn't really come in to it, as he didn't say or even imply that boingboing should only show news or that his opinion was shared by anyone else.

Just because someone says something critical of the site does not mean they're wrong, and vice versa, boingboing isn't always right and the automatic view that it is/isn't is the main thing that annoys me on these message boards.

also @ antinous, although boingboingers undoubtedly derive a lot of amusement from their contribution to this great site, I doubt they do it solely or even mainly for their own amusement, it is after all a considerable effort. Although it's really nice to attribute profitless motives to everyone, it's seldom true, and even if the main reason for people's contribution to boingboing is the love of the site, I'm guessing they still get paid. In a comparable way I often enjoy serving people at my student union bar, but I wouldn't do it if I didnt get paid, and I also wouldn't suggest someone left if they didn't feel my service was up to standard.

C'mon, Faustus, I'm anything but disingenuous and maybe I do get a buzz now and then from shoebikes and things like that. And this time dbarak among others, killed it. I had a moment of glee. Then I was was brought crashing back to the crappy world where people are pointing out that I shouldn't take so much enjoyment out of the things I enjoy, because... blah blah blah seen it before whatever.

Hanglyman, good question. :)

Thank you, editors of boingboing, for providing such a variety of things to look at, and such a high volume to keep me coming back at least daily, and yet, not so much volume that I am overwhelmed. There is so much variety here, that I don't HAVE to like every single thing. It's a certainty that I will find something I like to look at every day.

Don't worry, the next comment I make will be elitist and insulting.

I doubt they do it solely or even mainly for their own amusement

Then you haven't been keeping up, because they have explicitly stated it.

Just because someone says something critical of the site does not mean they're wrong

Fun bike! Now,please extend to walking steamroller
The drum should be at least a yard diameter and ten feet wide. Use clown shoes. People will be lining up to lie down under it!

It ate half my comment again, so:

It's not a question of right or wrong. How would you like to get a stream of e-mails every day saying that you're boring, you're narcissistic, you're out of date? That's why comments were originally shut down and that's why Teresa is here to wrangle those who think, to quote Noen, that their turds are the Gettysburg Address.

Tak-kun,

Why are you lounging around here when I've left you two riddles to solve over in Fake Babies?

digesting

Good to see they wedged at least one Chuck Taylor into the mix.

Looks like a tough ride. Maybe more spokes and smaller shoes? Where can I get an off-road version with hiking boots?

Hanglyman: a shoe-nicycle, perhaps? Niiiiiiice.

Anyone I know? Did they put up much of a fight?

Nice twist on the phrase "reinventing the wheel".

Look at what we're reduced to arguing about. To get back on track we need a post about authorities abusing their power, police state tactics, absurd copyright claims or Walt Disney. Preferably all of the above together.
Wake up Cory. This is an emergency, dammit!!

#10 - there is another version of this concept in one of Iain Bank's novels (I'm reasonably sure it is Against a Dark Background) where a fully enclosed unicycle-sorta vehicle has a large single wheel that has a large number of extensible spoke-analogues. It also has a BFG, making it even cooler. It can sort of tiptoe around or leap, or dash, or sidle. I want one. If I get 'into the zone' when driving or riding an intricate road I find myself remembering the device.

Ah, yes, wikipedia tells me it is indeed Against a Dark Background.

#37 - Deinventing the wheel, perhaps?

I just think it's part of how things work, what's the point of comments if every comment is "This is amazing, you're a god, I love you", I don't choose friends who only have views exactly the same as mine because I think (and please forgive the massive cliche, but I can't think of a more current example) a bit of disagreement is just grist for the mill, it makes my experience better. Ok being rude=not good, being nasty=not good but just saying you don't like something? I think that's fine.

note: I may only be arguing about this because there's no civil liberties/god existence/environmental issue to vent rage about... :p

a bit of disagreement is just grist for the mill

Nobody's arguing that point. Do you know that we have a drinking game that centers around commenters making the same tired complaints over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over?

Antinous, I think the "the Internet is a race and I won" drinking game should be separate from the "Boing Boing is a directory of wonderful things and how is this wonderful?"

Which type of comment do you think is more rare?

I reckon that we should have to take a shot for:

Boing Boing is a directory of wonderful things and how is this wonderful?

I saw this last week on _______. How is this news?

Why are comments being censored? I thought that BoingBoing was opposed to censorship!

whackamole or snowstorm?

Looks a LOT like the "Shoe Tester" exhibit at the Exploratorium:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/images/shoe_tester.jpg

This was actually a shoe tester used by the National Bureau of Standards! The original Mary-Janes on the tester lasted for decades at the museum!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Manx_Triskelion.png

I've seen unicycles like this before, but ith the soles of the shoes fastened more securely to a wheel rim so the end result is perfectly circular- a bumpy ride is a lot harder with one wheel. I believe there's a company makes them commercially, as the ones I've seen have been identical.

This bike is COOL. :D Trippy. Literally.

@Fsts, frgt t. ntns s xtrmly dfnsv f BB nd ts dtrs, ny tm smn mks th lst crtcsm h mks t pnt t tr thm nw n. t's jst wht h ds, t's lk trdmrk fr hm. wnt thrgh th xct sm rtn lst wk. Srsly, t's nt wrth yr tm.

Sounds like a good game. I'd like to suggest the following frequent exchange...

boring...

I hate people complaining that boingboing posts are boring.

I hate people complaining about people complaining that boingboing posts are boring

I hate people complaining about people complaining about people complaining that boingboing posts are boring

etc. I'll stop naow.

d

People, this is a blog. They can post anything they want, anytime they want, for any reason they want. They have no obligation to us whatsoever. It does not have be current, or relevant. Just because one person, or even many people have seen this before, does not mean we all have.

This kind of post is exactly why I read this site. This off topic comment thread is an example of the only detritus it serves up.

If you saw it a long time ago, and this is boring and out of date, it means you are much more current, hip, and in touch with boingboing.

So put it on your _own_ blog.

Oh, yeah, you probably don't have your own blog, because you saw this one thing a long time ago, but everything else you like, you found on boingboing.

Maybe there could be a separate blog run by the Random BoingBoing Blog Post Generator and we could all comment on it. Real posts would be off limits for comments.

now THAT is a GREAT idea!

I want a foot-wheel unicycle, but each spoke has to be a pneumatic ram so the vehicle actually skips as it rolls. Vertical stabilization could be be the same method they seem to have perfected for all those walking, hopping and uni-ball robots.

I've seen shoes with curvy bottoms (some sort of orthopedic shoe, maybe?) that might work better for this concept.

Takuan (@31), I saw a bike at Tour de Fat that was almost a steamroller--but the wheels were beer kegs. Sorry I couldn't find a picture of it.

I love art bikes, and might take up welding just so I can make one.

ROSSINDETROIT (@38), Thank you. I only type this if I mean it: LOL

Antinous (@13), You're right. If Boing Boing were as inane and self-referential as my blog, I'd probably leave and never come back. I suppose I expect a different caliber from Boing Boing--which is awesome 2/3 of the time, and that's pretty good. I'm just saying a little less narcissim and self promotion could bring up their rating on the TedJohnson measure of awesomeness. Cory is hands-down my favorite here, but the more this place seems like a Cory (Xeni, Mark, etc.) fan club, the less I like it.

well. looking for Tour de Fat links and steamroller photos took me to some silly site that had some stupid bicycle device that would store and filter water so poor, thirsty people wouldn't have to die like animals for no good reason at all. See? That's the kind of evil,boring time-wasting stuff that comes from posting links like this. I think we owe a debt of gratitude to all those that are willing to take time from their important days and set those irresponsible,uncreative louts that run this site straight.

The shoe bike reminds me of Kinetic Sculpture Race vehicles such as from the Corvallis Oregon da Vinci Days race and the Eureka/Arcada race.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-U-mvfjyiao

A compromise of two methods of getting ahead: walking/biking. Pretty neat idea although hardly practical for above reason.

Cefeida,

The vast majority of your comment history consists of defending trolls and attacking people who defend the Boingers. And you usually do it in a tone of self-pity and passive aggression. I believe that makes you a troll. You are dead to me.

Monowheel! Sort of... http://www.flickr.com/photos/avi_abrams/1004659106/sizes/o/

I write this post just in order to have Salvador dali's name connected to this "invention"
I've seen the one Dali made, back in the end of the 70's in Pompidou Museum in Paris.
My grand grand father took me there. There also a Giant spoon with an actual Citroen "Traction Avant' in it...

Antinous - Since Jan 1 2008....Thousands of comments to BB.

Thousands.

Actually...I lost count/stopped caring at about 500...but had only scrolled 1/10 down the page.

Thats not commenting. Thats Insane.

The BoingBoing Alter waits for thee.

Geeks have passionate interests. That's what makes us geeks. Welcome to BoingBoing. May I take your coat?

And if you had used your verbal instead of your mathematical skills, you would have noticed that it's a big subject-already-provided chat room for me, Takuan, Noen, Jeff, Arkizzle, Tenn, Xopher......and I apologize to everybody that I didn't mention. Also, I have a job that requires me to sit around all day waiting for the phone to ring.

Antinous, on your way to the check room with his coat maybe you should stuff his pockets with happy pills.

I gave a guy my coat once..

Once.

Also, I thought Antaginous (Antagonistus really, but mine flows better) was GREAT!

I'm going to reappropriate it and use it apropo (or specifically non-apropo, maybe) from now on.. like when you're pulling hair, or when you get a bit bitey.

Frankly, I don't think you're bitey enough.

Always with the hair-pulling. That was like three months ago.

And I think that I'll go with Agonistes instead of Antagonistes for reasons which should be obvious.

More stuff to throw into a landfill. Cute, but do we need to keep making garbage when we can create it with 3D rendering programs?

how do you know they won't use it to get to work every day?

Would that include paintings and sculpture as well, since this is essentially an artwork?

I'd like to contribute my collection of files in my Windows Trash. In many respects, it's a retrospective on my own existence and the existence of the "every man" who uses a computer. Downloaded files, spam, images. It's what we all are, it's what we all become. It is art, it is reason, it is the calming music that plays at the end of LOST when all is... well?

I have to image that it would very well in cartoon land. I think for anyone to clap or boo at a post is half the fun of reading posts. I'm not going to bother with a culture that is composed of nothing more than cultish yes-men/women. Intellectual stimulation requires expossing one's self to new and perhaps controversial issues. How boring would it be if you just loved everything all the time and only said as much?

Antinous, as I sit and try to write my little stories, I love being able to pop in here or other places and see what's up. I research things, this place being one of them. I'm going to write a book about the subject. Cory is a great study; I've romanticized him into some sort of young Plato or similar philosopher/teacher/rabble-rouser, and would love to sit under some olive trees and just listen to him talk.

How boring would it be if you just loved everything all the time and only said as much?

How much more boring would it be to spend your day at the Museum of 18th Century Maggots or the Belorussian Enema Gallery and then complain about it. Why not just go to Disneyland or the Opera where you would have a good time? If I just loved everything all the time, I would be perfectly happy. That's a good thing. If I didn't want to be happy all the time, that would rather loudly hint that I wanted to be a victim or a martyr or someone who derives his identity from suffering.

I think the utter impracticality is charming. It's better for being comical. I'm amazed and amused that they made it work, since it was just for a photo-shoot.

If you were genuinely trying to make a practical shoe-bike, maybe you could re-mould the soles to be curved? Or use a larger number of kids' shoes? Or maybe just use bigger springs for suspension.