This man takes the wheel again

Posted on 09-01-2016 at 12:47 by CasperH – 12 Comments”

Meet with Ackeem Ngwenya, heruitvinder of the wheel.

Ackeem grew up in a village in Malawi, where he as a child with his family per day 20 pounds of corn to a mill and had to bring them into flour. That was a trip of almost 10 miles total per day, over bad terrain. A mix of rocks, loose sand and mud ensured that each day was a challenge with the heavy load.

On his tenth, he moved to Johannesburg, and through wanderings through Europe, he eventually arrived in Cape town, South Africa. The boy forgot, however, never how difficult it had been to day by day trip. And so he decided to go study in the direction of product designer. He funded partly with crowdfunding.

During his studies he developed Roadless, a wheel system that can adapt to the circumstances. The wheel varies in width using a shift system, so that to desire a lot or a little contact area can be chosen.

On a soft surface, you want to like a lot of load carrying capacity and so a wider band. Between the rocks by maneuvering can actually be a much narrower band very practical. It’s all actually very logical, but the world still knows little to no alternatives to the concept of wheels as we are now under a car are: fixed of form.

Ackeem wants an affordable solution, which also, for example, use can be made of old car tyres. This is the Roadless system is correct if a flexible rim, which can be used with all sizes of car tyres. Recycling for profit.

Check here a video with a short explanation of the project. It is so simple that you wonder why it’s not yet to a large extent is applied.