Sallyportal: Madly Blogging Reed

Monkey Bar Quadrocycle Materializes on Quad

By Lauren Cooper ’15 on October 16, 2015 04:06 PM

The Monkey Bar Quadrocycle utilizes a distinctive forearm-driven propulsion unit.

Strolling across the Quad in the past couple of days, you might notice a bizarre contraption rolling by, propelled by a clutch of giggling students. The Monkey Bar Quadrocycle is the latest engineering marvel to emerge from the shadowy student group DxOxTxUx (Defenders of the Universe).

The Quadrocycle consists of a platform suspended on four bicycle wheels with a barrel-like cylinder perched on top that users spin with their hands. The cylinder is connected to a long bicycle chain that drives the vehicle’s rear axle, moving it backwards or forwards.

The principal players in the construction of the Quadrocycle were Evan Peairs ’16, Toria Ellis ’19, and Caroline Padula ’19. “It’s a logical extension of one of our earlier projects, the giant hamster wheel in the SU,” says Evan. “Now that there’d been one you power with your feet, the next thing to do was to make a hand-powered one.”

Quadrocycle co-inventor Evan Peairs ’16 astride his creation.

According to Toria, the hardest part of building the Quadrocycle was making everything line up. “If you look closely at the bike you’ll notice it’s somewhat crooked, the bottom bit isn’t an exact rectangle and the wheels aren’t the same size which is why the bike won’t travel in a straight line.”

Evan originally hoped that people would use Quadrocycle to shuttle between classes but the contraption proved a little too unwieldy for that. Which is fine by Caroline, whose only hope is that, “People like it and have fun riding on it like I do!”

Tags: campus life