Interview: The stabiliser-free bike which teaches you to ride in a day

There’s a touch of Harry Potter about Jyrobike, as its creator follows the bicycle across a park as it cycles along by itself, upright.

“We do get people asking, ‘OK, where are the puppet-strings,’” Australian-born Robert Bodill admits.

Despite its inventor teasing it by poking its handlebars from side to side, the bike remains upright. It’s not impossible to knock over   -  but the whirring gyroscope in the front wheels wrestles back with something that seems unnervingly like a mind of its own, like  a less dorky version of a Segway.

That’s enough that the odd-looking little contraption (I was looking at the children’s version, but an adult version is under test) could turn the process of learning to ride a bike completely on its head - for children, teenagers and adults alike.

The £150 bike is so simple, its creators claim, it can take just a day for a child to learn to cycle. Next year, a powered version could change life completely for the elderly and disabled.

“Never ever put stabilisers on a bike, it’s pretty much the worst thing you can do,” says Jyrobike founder R Bodill, whose creation has a spinning gyroscope (it takes about a minute to whirr up to full speed), which provides stability at low speeds.

Gyroscopes are used in ships, in helicopters, and even in spacecraft to stablise them - “This is a known science, it’s just new to bikes” -  says Bodill. In a bike’s front wheel, with a computer lending a hand, they stop a bike tipping over.

Bikes are stabler at high speeds - what Jyrobike’s gentle nudges do is provide the confidence to reach those higher speeds. Bodill claims it’s a far more “natural” learning aid than stabilisers are.

“When you ride a bike, and you turn, you turn the opposite direction first, then turn properly. This is called counter-steering. We see children who’ve learnt on stabilisers, and the only way they can really turn is to lean heavily into the corner. When they get onto a real bike, they have to unlearn that. We’re teaching children to ride properly. Unlike stabilisers, you just turn the gyroscope down gradually, and they’re riding naturally. ”

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The bike charges off a normal USB cable - ie the same you’d use to charge a smartphone or Kindle - and has three LED lights to show how much power is left in the batteries. One one side, a flashing light shows the gyroscope is spinnning with a red blur.

The demonstration unit Yahoo News was shown is an early version - the finished Jyrobike will be slimmer, with extras such as Bluetooth control via an app added in - which could encourage children to hone cycling skills with extras such as games where they cycle round cones whiich light up as they pass.

“The other thing we see with children who’ve learned on stabilisers, is that when they come to a stop, they don’t put their feet down on the ground. On a real bike… well, you can imagine what happens,” says Bodill.

“We’re working on a teenage and adult model, there’s a huge opportunity for adult re-learners, too. The adult one is another level altogether - we’re aiming for one that’s a combination e-bike, and Jyrobike, and we need better algorithms, and a handlebar display that’s showing your stability. We also want to put another sensor underneath the seat, so that it can sense your speed - we have been working in computer simulation with a university in the Netherlands for four years. The next thing we need to do is put a human with a real human brain on it - that’s the thing a computer can’t do.”

Jyrobike passed its Kickstarter goal in 6 days, with a few days left to go for early investors (it closes on 3rd July).

“We want to create what traction control did for cars,” says Bodill, “But balance control for a bike. A dual-channel e-bike, with the bike providing power to the pedals and balance control. We’re hoping to show off that prototype for the first type at Eurobike in August this year.

“We have assistance from the Netherlands government via the SOFIE Project - it’s such a huge part of the culture over there - and they want older people to ride for longer, so that elderly people and people with disabilities can continue to ride for longer.”