Jeff Burch

A backwards bicycle has the seat and handle bars swapped. The chain drives the front wheel, the handle bars manipulate the rear wheel, and you sit facing forward. This IS NOT the same as sitting backward on your bicycle as you ride it in the normal forward direction as you look over your shoulder to see where you are going. In this talk and demonstration, I'll explain why my backwards bicycle is essentially impossible to ride. It all has to do with a minus sign switching to a plus sign in the underlying differential equations that describe the bicycle's dynamic motion. As you may not know calculus and certainly don't know differential equations, I'll have to teach you a bit of these subjects too!