The Official Home of Panterragaffe

It was featured on thousands of Web sites around the world,
just four weeks after it was unveiled.

It has also been used for a comedy piece
in the Japanese show called "Sekai No Hatte Madde Itte Q!"
(translated: Riddles at the far ends of the World) for Japan's Nippon Television Network.

It's a prime time show with 15,000,000 viewers.

A note from Theo Jansen

"This is really great news. I dreamed about the bicycle version many years ago and you realized that dream. Good to see people have so much fun with your bicycle.

Lots of success,
Theo Jansen"

The legs are based on a mechanism made popular by the kinetic sculptures of Theo Jansen in Holland. We didn't have access to drawings, so it took us 13 months of spare time and 3 iterations to reverse engineer them from a photograph. There are two leg boxes containing three pairs of legs each, spanned by a bench for two pedalers. Three pairs of legs are required to ensure there are enough points of contact with the ground for stability. Each side is driven by a crank shaft, gears and pedals. There are two independent leg boxes and pedalers to allow steering. Similar to a skid-steer loader, one person stops pedaling while the other keeps going and you turn a corner. The feet are heavy steel cups that are allowed to spin something like casters, helping to reduce the friction on corners.


Try visiting Metro DS We are the builders of Panterragaffe. This clip shows the first steps of the Panterragaffe prototype. (hit refresh to replay) It was featured on thousands of Web sites around the world, just four weeks after it was unveiled. It has also been used for a comedy piece in the Japanese show called "Sekai No Hatte Madde Itte Q!" (translated: Riddles at the far ends of the World) for Japan's Nippon Television Network. It's a prime time show with 15,000,000 viewers.	. . . to the finished Panterragaffe A note from Theo Jansen "This is really great news. I dreamed about the bicycle version many years ago and you realized that dream. Good to see people have so much fun with your bicycle. Lots of success, Theo Jansen"
Panterragaffe is a pedal powered two person walking machine, a walking bicycle. The name has a few elements to it. It's a play on pantograph, a mechanism for copying drawings, since it's similar to the leg mechanism. Also; Pan - all or spanning. Terra - earth. Gaffe - an unintentional act causing embarrassment to it's originator or just goofy-ness. A bit of goofy-ness for everybody. To most people the name doesn't mean anything, therefore it's meaning is flexible. Panterragaffe was conceived from the beginning as a public performance piece. It's purpose had shock value and public participation in mind from the start. After building a seven inch prototype (above), it was clear that a mobile entertainment platform was possible. It was only a small step after that to decide to add a power source, music and lighting to suit different events. The rough frame allows us to add character coverings, Panterragaffe can dress up differently ever time it goes out. Hence the flexible name.
	The legs are based on a mechanism made popular by the kinetic sculptures of Theo Jansen in Holland. We didn't have access to drawings, so it took us 13 months of spare time and 3 iterations to reverse engineer them from a photograph. There are two leg boxes containing three pairs of legs each, spanned by a bench for two pedalers. Three pairs of legs are required to ensure there are enough points of contact with the ground for stability. Each side is driven by a crank shaft, gears and pedals. There are two independent leg boxes and pedalers to allow steering. Similar to a skid-steer loader, one person stops pedaling while the other keeps going and you turn a corner. The feet are heavy steel cups that are allowed to spin something like casters, helping to reduce the friction on corners.
In it's present configuration it requires smooth hard ground to walk, but we're working on a modification to the mechanism to pick the feet up higher with each step. We should then be able to walk on grass and slightly irregular ground. It's made entirely of mild steel, with ball bearing joints and pivots. The bench and two leg boxes are three separate pieces, held together with hitch pins for easy transport. It weighs nearly 700 pounds loaded without passengers. The legs are only 1/2 inch square tubing with 1/16 inch wall thickness. This material bends very easily, but with careful leg design we were able to use this extremely small tubing to reduce weight and present a lighter appearance. Panterragaffe lives in our manufacturing studio in West Vancouver, Canada. Give us a call if we can help with your project ideas.