Tech: Foot powered bike created to encourage more cycling within an urban environment

The Fliz bike

Without pedals, gears, or a saddle, should the Fliz Bike be considered a bicycle at all? Part hang-glider, part Rube Goldberg device, the Fliz is composed of a lightweight frame that uses a harness to suspend the rider in between a set of wheels. Based on the concept of a velocipede, the German prototype was created to encourage more cycling within an urban environment.

Like a blast from the past, the Fliz Bike harkens back to the days before bicycles were designed with all of the efficiency and convenience of pedals and a chain. German designers Tom Hambrock and Juri Spetter drew their inspiration from the “Laufmaschine,” a 19th-century precursor to the modern bike.