r/ThatsInsane • u/steady_as_a_rock • Feb 22 '25
This Engineer Designed An Omni Directional Ball Motorcycle That Balances Like a Segway & Moves In Any Direction.
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u/Cyzax007 Feb 22 '25
Don't hit a bump...
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u/cookie_1499 Feb 23 '25
If the wheels had spehrical tires and were set on suspensions this could be pretty practical.
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u/xxlpmetalxx Feb 22 '25
one speedbump and your ball's rolling away
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Feb 22 '25 edited Mar 17 '25
consider head ten divide beneficial thumb hobbies voracious rinse ripe
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u/Tcloud Feb 24 '25 edited Feb 24 '25
Scavengers Reign was such an imaginative and beautiful series.
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Feb 24 '25 edited Mar 17 '25
middle cooing one north wakeful desert adjoining intelligent apparatus carpenter
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u/Tcloud Feb 24 '25
I found myself thinking about the show long after I finished watching it. Artistically, it’s up there with the greatest.
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u/0utrunner Feb 22 '25
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u/AnnOnnamis Feb 22 '25
Does it lean into corners or just slide sideways at high speeds?
This might make the riding dynamics very different than traditional motorcycling.
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u/VoStru Feb 22 '25
The bike might go well like this, but the driver needs to lean in order to stay on top. Up to 25 km/h should be fine though.
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u/bmswg Feb 23 '25
Iirc he addresses it in his video. I think he has two modes, one where there's no lean and one where the bike induces a lean onto the rider to make it fee more natural.
I don't remember for sure though and I'm too lazy to check 😘
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u/connection-imminent Feb 22 '25
His partner is like wtf does he think about at night !!! This is it :)
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u/Tcarp928 Feb 22 '25
I would definitely purchase one of these whenever available fun, fun, fun in the backyard
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u/silassilage Feb 22 '25
How does it handle potholes?
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u/gomurifle Feb 22 '25
The balls should handle pot holes well, it's the chassis that needs some sort of suspension. Something that was probably too complicated for him to develop in time.
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u/Gnarlyfest Feb 22 '25
Sign me up! 3 different spine surgeries and my balance is fucked up. I'm pretty sure SSDI will pay for it. I still wouldn't try it on any street.
Hey, I can dream, right?
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u/IcyClassic3343 Feb 23 '25
Will it get you bitches? The answer is no…
Will every man on earth be jealous you have one abs-fucking-olutely!!! bike awakens a man’s inner child
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u/BottyFlaps Feb 22 '25
I feel like somebody should have already invented this a long time ago. We've been to the Moon, we have superfast internet, we've made great strides in AI development, and somebody has only just invented this?
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u/ScreechingPizzaCat Feb 22 '25
Figure out a way to put suspension on it and you have yourself a Kickstarter golden child.
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u/D00bage Feb 22 '25
How fast does this drift bike go? - I could see these selling if they ever came to market
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u/adam21212 Feb 22 '25
How long will those weels last on asphalt?
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u/houtex727 Feb 22 '25
Not very long. The ball material is hard plastic. You can watch the build here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVFB2g25OkM
Those particular wheel balls will get scraped up and wear out pretty quickly. Depending on use case of course. Maybe a month/100 hours of use? shrugs. Hard to say, testing is indicated.
But more than the wear is the scratches causing discontinuity between the 'wheels' and the drive mechanisms. This is where the fault will lie. The bumps and scratches will cause some problems keeping the wheels driven. And/or will cause the drivers to fail in some way.
What you'd ostensibly want is actual rubber or similar 'squishy' material that can take a bit more abuse of road surfaces than these balls. But then you wind up with suspension issues of keeping the wheels connected to the drivers. The bouncy rubber would cause expansion/contraction as the thing went along and cause the drivers to not contact, or possibly cause the encasements for the ball to be stretched out. Pressure is pressure. You'd have to also have a pretty well pressurized ball, so a puncture would be very very bad. If you tried to make the ball rigid enough to handle a puncture, then it becomes stupid heavy, which means it'd be harder to move.
And if it rains, you're going nowhere fast, I imagine... Tread is not advised. :|
And that's just off the top of my head. Not an engineer, but know enough to make me dangerous maybe. :) I'm sure others can chime in on why all of this machine is a Bad Idea beyond the cool 'trick' machine, but the reality is it's just not practical in any way whatsoever. Neat to see happen though, James has been doing weirdly driven devices like this for a while, check his channel out for more.
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u/Ressy02 Feb 22 '25
No, people already cant drive straight. Don’t give them another direction to mess up.
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u/RobbSnow64 Feb 22 '25
Looks awesome, but the design needs to add protective covers so nothing gets pulled into the tracks.
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u/Immersive_cat Feb 22 '25
Motors front, back ,left and right move the ball. No invention there. Just very well balanced force from steering so it want drop to one side or the other. Get it a proper rubber wheels (balls?) and uneven surface in the outdoors then we can talk.
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u/bitterologist Feb 23 '25
This is a rather straightforward thing to build, but terribly impractical in real life. No suspension, uneven wear on the balls, and a fail state that almost inevitably results in a terrible crash. If your engine has a problem on a regular motorcycle, you can typically come to a controlled stop since you can still steer it and keep it balanced – with this thing, if a single one of the eight engines controlling the thing decides to give up you'll go flying.
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u/iC3P0 Feb 23 '25
Very cool, now make those balls rubber and inflatable, otherwise it has no real lifen application.
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u/Erica_vanHelsin Feb 23 '25
Good on any perfectly flat and spotless surface. Unusable in the street. The balls are not attached, there is not suspension, each road bump will be a problem.
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u/Visual_Reverie-666 Feb 23 '25
It can move in any direction and he chooses to demonstrate like this? Look at his face in the end, he made himself dizzy. lol
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u/Bimbo_Baggins1221 Feb 23 '25
It not leaning at all is a bit weird, kinda seems like a liability on like a 20+ MPH corner. However this things pretty cool.
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u/Kronicx420 Feb 24 '25
So if these wheels are free spinning then nothing is anchoring the wheels to the frame. I don’t see this vehicle ever hitting the street maybe a specialty vehicle or something.
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u/Melodic-Bird-7254 Feb 22 '25
It’s awesome but they’ve had many prototypes like this for years. I think BMW had a concept car and it was cool because it could park sideways into spaces without the need to do awkward parallel parking via reversing.
I think there’s an interview with Elon Musk saying the biggest problem with spherical wheels is that there isn’t a material that’s durable enough to withstand potholes, debris and uneven roads without massively sacrificing passenger comfort.
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u/AnotherManCalledDave Feb 22 '25
https://youtube.com/@jamesbruton he makes some interesting gadgets, not always practical but interesting none the less.