Making a Monowheel

The making of every handmade motorbike has been always an exciting project, imagine in this case referring to a monowheel. The monowheel is a machine that has only one wheel and the driver sits inside it. The wheel is leaded by other smaller wheels and it is moved by the machine through a rubber wheel, which is connected with the main wheel.

Firstly, we started our structure by making a big, metallic wheel with 130cm diameter using a tube of 40mm diameter. Then, we lined the metallic wheel with a rubber in order to achieve having the benefits that all the tyres have on the street. Also, due to the fact that the wheel is big in size, we took 4 tyres from small motorbikes and we cut them as well as we glued the one with the other in order to form a tyre.

Afterwards, we made 3 wheels with a bearing using Teflon PTFE and on which the big wheel rolls. These three wheels were attached with the inside part of the wheel on a framework. On this framework, another machine 110cc 4 stroke was placed. This machine using a chain, enables a rubber wheel to move so this wheel enables the big wheel to move as well. Therefore, the rider sits inside the wheel.

Despite all the difficulties and challenges that we faced making this structure, it was still an incredible and exciting project to complete. The monowheels are very unstable in low speed but very stable in speeds over 30km. Concluding, the feeling that the driver gets while driving it is very unusual as we have never driven such a vehicle in our lives before. We are unbelievably happy making and owning a functional monowheel from now on.