A tricycle designed and fabricated by eight automobile engineering students of MIT, Anna University, appears specially-tailored for activities for our villages.
This cycle, which raced away with the second prize at Efficycle 2010 (an all-India contest by Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) that rewards successful attempts by students at producing efficient and innovative cycles) makes it possible to lug heavy objects such as milk cans.
It also allows two cyclists to ride simultaneously or alternately. “If one cyclist is tired, the other can pedal it alone,” says Prem Kumar, captain of the eight-member team.
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Feature-rich
The most significant feature is the cycle's suspension. Wishbone suspension in the front and multi-link suspension in the rear enhance ride quality considerably.
Other features include 18 gears and a top speed of 42 km an hour. For protection, it has a side member that serves as a luggage carrier. A utility box can be clamped to the rear end of the cycle.
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To design and fabricate this cycle, Prem and the rest of the boys — Chinmay V. Kulkarni, Shalin Chaudhari, S. Naveen, G.V. Saravanan, T. Narendhran, C. Vadivel and R. Ashwin — took the long road from Chrompet to the TI Cycles' factory in Ambattur daily after college hours.
The parameters laid down by SAE's Efficycle team was challenging, and making a cycle that met those high standards required sponsorship and technical support from a company as big as TI Cycles.
“The basic rule was designing a cycle with three wheels on different axles,” says Chinmay. “The cycle had to pass through brake, acceleration and manoeuvrability tests and a sharp scrutiny by technical experts and cost evaluators.”
The cycle, whose fabrication cost Rs. 12,000, won first prizes for design and acceleration, and finished second in the overall category, behind Naval College of Engineering, Pune. No mean achievement, since 18 teams from around the country made it to the finals, held at UIET (Punjab University) in Chandigarh.
It is a pity the successful team from MIT has no plans to commercialise this efficiently-built cycle. In the final year of their course, the students seem content with leaving behind a legacy for their juniors.