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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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Shark Wheel to Reinvent Skateboarding Experience
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... I don't know why but, suddenly, I want to discuss declining I.Q.
LEVELS with a blue ribbon SENATE SUB-COMMITTEE!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Shark Wheel on Saturday May 24 2014, @05:57PM
(Never been on this site before, wasn't certain how best to post this-excuse the duplicate post)
Hi everyone,
Thanks for starting up a discussion on my company.
I will try to answer some questions in this one post and give you guys a few tidbits you don't know about.
Scientific Studies Recently Completed
1. Finite dynamic analysis test and real world testing of wheel in Canada. Third party tested the Shark Wheel's performance under friction and tested its longevity. The Shark Wheel lasted 10% longer than any wheel they have ever tested. A traditional wheel has one defined center point and wears unevenly under friction. The Shark Wheel has a constantly changing center point, and is 540 degrees (as opposed to a traditional wheel at 360 degrees) and therefore lasts longer.
2. Stress testing at UCLA school of engineering. A traditional wheel has nearly all of the stress on the bearing. The Shark Wheel disperses stresses along its six undulations evenly. Less stress is placed on the center/bearings and therefore the bearings will last longer when using the Shark Wheel.
We are looking to do more testing on a variety of items in the near future.
Facts/Myths
1. The Shark Wheel is a tread pattern. Myth - The Shark Wheel is a new shape altogether that rolls by itself. The skateboard wheel connects three Shark Wheels together and to the untrained eye looks like a tread pattern. If you look at the single Shark Wheel, you will clearly see it is a stand-alone wheel.
2. The Shark Wheel's shape is not good for tilting. Fact. The Shark Wheel does not perform well when leaning past 22.5 degrees. Wheels that are in-line such as bicycles, motorcycles, etc are not a good fit for the Shark Wheel. We do have alternate designs we will release in the near future where we can perform well in these markets however.
3. The Shark Wheel is just a gimmick. Myth. It is a literal reinvention of the shape of the wheel for the first time in human history. When a wheel is needed to go over varying terrain the Shark Wheel outperforms the traditional circular wheel. It is completely flat on six sides and we actually build the wheel from a flat sides of a box. It has defined performance advantages in skateboarding as well as other industries.
4. The Shark Wheel is not for high performance. Myth. We were in our first two competitions ever in the last couple months: finishing 4th in the world at the Miami Ultraskate and finishing in 3rd place on the podium at the Broad Street Bomb in Philadelphia.
Skateboarding advantages:
1. Lightning Fast: The design allows for a thin contact patch touching the ground and therefore less rolling resistance, resulting in a quick ride. The material we use is made in California, has extreme rebound, and ranks among the best in the world.
2. More grip and sliding control: The alternating pattern equates to increased control  the width is increased, but the friction is decreased! The sine wave design provides three lips per wheel for superior lateral grip. A traditional wheel only has one. When you want to slide, they break away predictably and recover easily.
3. Better over the ‘rough stuff’: The sine wave pattern smoothly funnels most debris, pebbles, and dirt aside, instead of ‘steamrolling’ over it like traditional wheels. This allows for firm contact with the ground and a shockingly smooth ride. Some people have sent us reviews saying they like going over debris on purpose now instead of avoiding it.
4. Perfect rain wheels: The alternating pattern of grooves significantly reduces hydroplaning by channeling liquid away from the surface of the wheel, allowing for a firm contact patch with the ground. Also, the rounded outer edges allow the rain to pass around the outside of the wheel smoothly, providing more aerodynamic functionality. The sine wave pattern beats the traditional grooved circular wheels in the rain wheel category for speed and grip.
A few interesting things:
We just signed up 27 countries to exclusive distribution in the skateboarding market and are growing very quickly, producing thousands of wheels per month to try and meet demand. We are still back-ordered from a few months ago trying to catch up on shipments.
People that comment negatively on the wheel have never tried it. We purposely sent free sets of wheels to the biggest detractors we could find online. Each one of them came back to say that our marketing campaign essentially pissed them off, but that all of our claims hold true in real world testing.
We are in talks to license the technology to a variety of different markets right now. From roller skates, to wind turbines, to ATV vehicles, etc.
Some people will post that this has been done before. Absolutely nothing like this has ever been done before and the International Patent Office (PCT Application) came back and found one thing 'similar' around the entire world: a geometry teaching aide in Russia that shows a sine wave, circle, square, hexagon, etc all in one shape. It is not used for motion, nor does it look anything like the Shark Wheel. Someone here posted about Johan Gielis' superformula, which has nothing to do with the Shark Wheel shape.
When rolling a Shark Wheel and a traditional wheel of the same diameter, the Shark Wheel rolls much further. This has not been scientifically tested, but we have done our own testing a million times. The alternating pattern of the design keeps it upright - it always tries to find center. A circular wheel falls right when it loses momentum.
The Shark Wheel is 540 degrees. A traditional circular wheel is 360 degrees.
The Discovery Channel came out to our offices and went to three other locations to film a segment on their Daily Planet show for reinventing the wheel. You can find the video on our site, or by searching in Google.