Is the Sideways bike the big idea?

November 13, 2006 We’ve written about the sideways bike and its delightfully eccentric Dublin (Ireland) inventor Michael Killian before, and the response was so great that we thought our UK-based readers might like the opportunity to see plugging his invention on Sky One's The Big Idea TV show in a bid to win UKP100,000 next Saturday (November 18 at 9pm). The new prime-time series aims to discover the next great British/Irish invention or business idea. The bicycle is the world's best selling form of transport with 100 million sold each year – twice the number of cars sold - so a profitable niche market might exist for the more creative among us. Michael’s premise in building the sideways bike is that Left-Right balance is the most familiar and primary balance used for riding a conventional bicycle. Front-Back balance has little visual input and is the primary balance used in riding a surfboard, windsurfer and snowboard. Front-Back balance is a finer instrument than Left-Right balance and offers a greater degree of artistic freedom e.g. skiing (Left-Right balance) is faster than snowboarding (Front-Back balance), however people prefer to snowboard because of the greater artistic expression.

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