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Shark Wheel to Reinvent Skateboarding Experience

posted by Woods on Friday May 23 2014, @03:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the shark-is-the-best-kind-of-wheel dept.

buswolley writes:

A California-based company has a new kind of wheel for skateboards that delivers a novel shape and claims a special ride experience. This is the Shark Wheel, not circular, not square, but something more interesting. The wheels appear as square when in motion from a side view but the wheel geometry is more than that. The wheels feel circular to the rider, and viewing them along with more details may help to clear the mystique. The wheels are made of three strips each; these create a helical shape when they roll, and they form a sine wave pattern. When the wheels make contact with the ground, good things happen, say the team behind the wheels - the user gets speed, better grip, and a smoother ride.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by randmcnatt on Friday May 23 2014, @06:33PM

    by randmcnatt (671) on Friday May 23 2014, @06:33PM (#46843)
    This looks like a supercircle (see superellipse [wolfram.com]) as popularized by mathematician Piet Hein [wikipedia.org], extuded into a helix. I seem to recall that shape looked loony but would roll easily.
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  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday May 23 2014, @07:06PM

    by mhajicek (51) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 23 2014, @07:06PM (#46861)

    From a straight-on side view they're just round. They may flex a bit acting as shock absorbers, but that's about the only possible difference.

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  • (Score: 1) by Immerman on Saturday May 24 2014, @03:31PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Saturday May 24 2014, @03:31PM (#47120)

    As mhajicek says, from the side they're circular. They have to be to give a smooth ride on a flat surface when axel-mounted (various other shapes can give a smooth ride when used as rollers, but that's not relevant here)

    Functionally these wheels just have a wavy tread on them. Maybe that gives them some great advantage over simply putting nice straight grooves around a normal wheel - I could see it helping to guide small rocks into the grooves more effectively at least, but it's still just a tread pattern. The primary appeal of these will, I imagine, be the fact that they're a lot more visually interesting than simple cylindrical wheels.