Automatic Tire Inflation System for Bicycles

In 2012, troubled with our bicycles gradually leaking air from their tires, we built an automatic tire inflation system for our bicycles. In doing so, we literally re-invented the wheel! That is, we designed a new bicycle hub (the central part of the wheel). Several other designs were proposed, but only one could survive the tight budget constraints. The project was awarded the best undergraduate project in the department as well as the institute (IIT Kanpur). Here is a demo of the design:

While doing the project, I got interested in the dynamics of bicycles. I discovered that why the bicycles remain balanced was only recently understood. Prof. Arend Schwab gave a talk on this topic in the same year (2012). This was shocking to me. Bicycle balancing is studied under the framework of ideal rigid bodies. And the theory of rigid bodies is a complete, “a-priori” framework. That is, once you have the laws of Classical Mechanics, you don’t need to go “out” anywhere to find answers; all answers are available within your pen-and-paper analysis (given that you can solve the equations somehow).

Motivated with this, I went on to pursue a research degree in rigid body dynamics in 2013. And in my dissertation, I tested the limits of this “a-priori” framework. How much could we do simply using rigid-body assumptions, and without considering the bodies as flexible? That was my research question and the dissertation is available here.