Engineer creates head-turning bicycle

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jason Schaap
  • 931st Air Refueling Group Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  He didn't know what it was, but he knew that he could build it.

Senior Airman Cameron Keating, one of the 931st Air Refueling Group's youngest civil engineers, was walking in Old Town Wichita when he first noticed someone riding an odd-looking bicycle.

"It took about 13 seconds," he said. "I looked at it, figured it out, and said, 'Alright, I'm going to make one.'"

One problem: he didn't know what "it" was called.

His solution: Googleland

"I got on the Internet and started searching around," the Waverly native said. He found the term "swing bike," typed it in a search engine "and (bunches) of results came up."

The swing bike, it turns out, is nothing new. According to the upstart site swingbikerider.com, the hinged creation, once probably called a "pivicycle," originated in Oregon back in the '70s. They were patented and manufactured for about three years, discontinued, and then reproduced again for a very short time in 2003.

Nowadays, swing bikers make their own. The standard procedure is to cut up two normal bicycles and weld them together. Airman Keating asked to use his father's equipment for the welding part.

"He just gave me this weird look and said, 'Go for it,'" he remembered. "And then he laughed when I was done."

The freak-of-engineering-nature design makes seeing one in action for the first time a mind bending experience. Picture two unicycles connected by a rope, one ridden, and one steered, by the same person. Said one YouTuber, it's like watching a "monkey on crack."

"The first time you ride it, the back tire is going to take off and the front tire is going to stay there," Airman Keating said. "It's odd riding it ... it looks like you are out of control."

A local Sonic waitress jumped out of the way when she saw Airman Keating coming through the restaurant's drive-in lot on his Frankenstein bicycle. "How do you ride that thing?" she asked him.

Tech. Sgt. Joshua Jankowski, another 931st civil engineer, spotted the twisted-looking bike in the back of Airman Keating's pickup during a recent weekend training assembly here. "When did you become a carnie?" he went and asked his young structures teammate.

Despite the razzing, Airman Keating gave a quick swing bike demo for his co-Reservists. He drew the usual stares at first, but his fellow structures Airmen, the builders of the 931st Civil Engineer Squadron, didn't say much. Like Airman Keating's father, the need to create such a machine was no mystery to them. Building is in the blood.

"I love to make things with my own hands," Airman Keating said. "I always have."


Watch More
Click here to watch a YouTube video of an avid swing biker build, ride and explain his favorite mode of transportation.

Click here to watch a YouTube video of "Crazy Swing Bike Stunts."

(note: YouTube video may not be accessible when using a government computer)