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A bicycle that uses gyroscopic technology to help toddlers learn to ride a bicycle is set to hit the market from Gyrobike, a company looking to make training wheels obsolete and fashionably dated.  While training wheels have long been the standard for teaching young children to learn to ride a bicycle, they don’t particularly prepare the child well for the transition from trainings wheels to none.  Enter the Gyrowheel, which is trying to ease that transition and make the experience far less difficult both in terms of setup as well as maintaining use after the extra assistance is no longer required.  The Gyrowheel initially works to keep the child upright at 100% power, but as the child begins to feel more comfortable, the support can be dialed back and lessened until the point where it is no longer offering support and the child is riding unassisted.  The beauty of the design is that it allows the rider to transition smoothly from assistance to riding unsupported without the requirement for someone to mount or un-mount the assitive device.

Click to Watch A Youtube Video on the GyroBike

The device works with a rechargeable battery that lasts for roughly 3 hours on full strength assistance, which should be more than enough time for the average toddler’s excursion.  The assistance works significantly enough to really help the child feel secure on the bicycle, but at the same time, not so much that it does all the balancing for them.  And as the amount of help is lowered, they are forced to rely on their own sense of balance more and more.  The wheel is the standard 12″ size for childrens’ bicycles and is simple to change out with the existing wheels that accompany the bikes.  Once it is attached, there is no need to take it off as it can function perfectly normally as a wheel long after the child is in need of the support.

If you click the image to the left, you can watch a youtube video of a little girl learning to ride a biciycle for the first time.  Within 30 minutes she is able to ride with the help of the Gyrowheel, but no assistance from her father.  That feat alone is incredibly impressive, especially when considering that potentially within a day someone could be used to riding a bicycle virtually unassisted.

While the design itself is certainly an improvement upon the existing tradition of training wheels, it is also not a revolutionary leap forward.  What it does though, is use relatively new technology to improve the experience for the users, both the teacher and the student in this scenario.  It streamlines the process and effectively reduces the stress put on the rider, while encouraging them to learn quicker.  Simply put, it does it’s job, and it does it in a very efficient manner, and that is what good design is.