This Wild Custom Bike Shows Off Seriously Clever Engineering

Two wheels, a motor, suspension, and a seat are the core elements of any motorcycle. In YouTuber Sam Barker's case, they're actually the core elements of his custom diwheel, which looks even wilder than even the strangest concept motorcycles. Barker's creation has wheels mounted on either side of the chassis instead of in line front-to-back like a traditional bicycle or motorcycle, and is still a work in progress as of this writing. Barker says the finished product will be able to turn in place like a tank rather than cornering like a traditional two-wheeled vehicle. In the first video documenting the ambitious build project in his garage workshop, Barker shows how he made what he has so far and shares his plans to complete the project.

Barker started by joining together two pairs of semi-circular tubing with 5mm thick walls to form the wheels. He then fabricated the frame and mounted a suspension on brackets using 3D-printed spools that keep the wheels in place and allow them to roll. Fitting the roller bearings on the brackets required rigging a ad-hoc lathe from a cordless drill and 3D-printed attachment.

Barker installed a plastic racing seat purchased on Facebook marketplace and said he plans to add a battery and motors and document their installation in a later video. At the time of writing that followup video hasn't been published, but we'll be following along with the build to see if Barker can actually produce a fully functioning diwheel. With about 44,000 subscribers he's far from the only YouTuber that more people should know about, and some of our readers may even be familiar with one of his previous projects.

The diwheel project isn't Sam Barker's first attempt at building a strange vehicle; he previously crafted a monowheel that makes a cameo at the start of his diwheel video. The monowheel had some serious flaws: the wheel flexed quite a bit and Barker had difficulty staying upright and in the saddle. He said the monowheel's lack of structural integrity inspired him to use thicker steel for the diwheel, although he admits the 60kg (132 pound) weight of each wheel could be overkill.

If he's successful Barker won't be the first to produce a functioning electric diwheel. In 2011, students at the University of Adelaide in Australia built a working diwheel called EDWARD (Electric Diwheel With Active Rotation Damping) that Wired described as "if Ripley's Power Loader from Aliens was mated with a bicycle." The rider controlled EDWARD with a joystick and the seat could rotate freely in the frame or be locked in place. Operating it with the seat locked made it seem more like a theme park ride than any existing two-wheeler, although it topped out at 40 km/h (just under 25 mph). Some of the world's fastest roller coasters can exceed 100 mph, but it's unlikely Barker will try to go that fast in his homemade contraption.