Twicycle was invented out of desire to achieve full body workout while cycling outdoors and out of realisation that no such affordable product exist on the market today. It went from an idea to proof of concept to a working prototype in a matter of a few months.
Twicycle launched a crowdfunding campaign in October 2016 and successfully reached the goal by raising $56k or 112% of the target within 30 days. With production completed in late 2017, Twicycle has hit streets worldwide in early Feb 2018.
Twicycle has been covered by many major and smaller media outlets around the world, amassing over 10mil video view on social media.
Boyan is the founder and inventor of Twicycle 2WD Arm and Leg bike. He is an avid outdoors enthusiast and cyclist and a proficient musician.
Goran Rista is a professional session drummer and producer based out of Miami, FL, and the brains behind the crowdfunding, and initial launch and marketing campagn of Twicycle.
He is also founder of GoranGrooves.com an innovative drum plugin software for DAW’s
I had been thinking about cycling for arms for several years before inventing Twicycle. I was always busy with music and other invention projects but was frequently visiting my workshop some 20 minutes away by bicycle. I found it hard to find time to get to the gym but I was well aware that I wanted to exercise and tone my upper body. My legs looked great and were fairly muscular already. I realised that 40 min round trip is a great potential workout and if I had a bike for arms I could use this time to do some biceps cycling and get my arms toned. I looked online for hand cycles but found they were incredibly expensive (7k and up). Plus the riding position is so low, almost sitting on the ground, so I’d basically be asking to be run over on the road with poor visibility as well as breathing in the worst of the fumes that low.
Also with a traditional hand cycle or hand bike I would have to find a separate shed to store it as being a 3 wheel version they have a fairly large footprint and would have made it impossible to carry that type of upper body bike up the stairs to my flat. Still I did some searches for any alternative triceps bike, even considered recumbent bike with arm exerciser (more about this idea in a separate article coming up), but nothing seemed to be as simple and usable as my regular bike. I came back to idea of using a hand bike several times over the years but eventually gave up. There was nothing suitable on the market.
Being an avid outdoor enthusiast, in my home country in the Balkans, I always try to make the best of the summer and mountainous region by exploring it on my bicycle. Fast forward to 2016, and I was doing my daily bike exploration but there was always this one section of very steep and, long and demanding hill where I often found that I run out of steam in my legs and I would occasionally push down on my knees with my arms to aid them. I also realised I was often pulling on my handlebars as counter leverage for legs and eureka! I came back to my original idea of hand cycle and the thought of incorporating it on my regular 2 wheeled bike right there on that hill. I mean, it would solve all my problems. It would be small foot print, lightweight, with good high up visibility, easy to move around and best of all could still be used as a regular bike.
The very next day I decided to go about designing the best arm bike I could possibly create for myself. Getting quickly onto my cad software I started drawing a first proof of concept for my 2 wheel version of arm bicycle. I tried to incorporate as many existing bike parts as possible so that I could make the first full body bike prototype quickly. As there was no existing hand bicycle with parts to scavenge available to me, everything on this had to be made from scratch. The first step to see if it was even possible to hold balance on a bike with hand pedals, so by just attaching a crude BB on the fork stem, with regular cranks being used as arm pedals and a couple of bolts in place of hand cycler handles, i tried. My dad was ridiculing me at the time, thinking no way this will work.. there must be a reason hand cycles always had 3 wheels. But I got on my crude 2 wheel hand bicycle and went about cycling it on the grass. “Hey It works, it works!”, I was shouting excitedly. I had the arm pedals set at 180 degrees (just like the legs) so it was a little tricky at first but the proof of concept was born and I could continue with the idea.
The design concept on my very first bicycle for arms continued like this: cut up an existing fork, widen and re-weld to fit a rear wheel, create a hand cycle mechanism and fit an additional handlebar for steering and brakes. I got a local car body shop guy to weld the necessary arm bike pieces for me according to my drawings. I got my arms bike parts ready and assembled the first proof of concept prototype again with hand pedaling bike parts oriented at 180 degrees. I decided to go off on some country gravel roads to test it out. It was remarkably easy to start pedalling with it right away. But the first thing I noticed was that the 180 degree arm handles orientation was tricky when they were fully upright. It seemed to balance a lot better in the positions where they were parallel to the ground. It makes sense: when they were fully upright, there was very little leverage as the hand cycle handles would be in line with fork stem, whereas when they were parallel to the ground it worked better, but this was by no means ideal.
Still I managed to adapt quickly and was soon in the forest trying out the newly created 2WD bicycle on a muddy incline where I previously always had to get off the bike and walk it due to rear wheel just not getting enough traction. This 2wd bike fitted with a hand cycling mechanism seemed to just grab onto the ground and pull. One of the most memorable events of the day was that I saw a storm coming over the hill and got caught trying to escape it. I was forced to come back home a different way on a paved road which was throwing me into a deep end on my newly created arm cycling contraption. The thunder storm was on my heels, I was speeding down hills, windy roads.. I got home with a minute to spare when all “hail” broke lose and hail storm turned a summer day into Narnia within minutes. Whatta hail?
But never mind. I was feeling elated, my idea had worked, I had created an exercise bike with arms that move and I could go about my arm cycle exercise whilst enjoying my favourite spots.
There was one issue I had to address however. The 180 degree offset for cycling arms did not feel natural and required additional care to keep balance in those before mentioned upright positions. What if the handles were oriented at 0 degrees? I fought against the idea in my head. After all, I had imagined my hand bike with 180 degree offset from the onset and it was difficult to open my mind to any other possibility. I kept fighting it. Did 3 more days of riding the arm bike machine and finally decided I should open my mind and try the alternative. (I later found out almost all hand cycles had this 0 degree layout for a reason, the same reason I was discovering on my very first bike for arms prototype.)
The next day I repositioned the cycling arm handles to be parallel, at 0 degrees, just like and other handlebar that I had used on regular bikes all my life. I took it up the path and onto the road to try. I started cycling just with legs at first and then spun the arm cycles handlebar. Whoa. The upper & lower body cycle just moved forward like on steroids. I could put down more power through the handlebars with both arms working together in tandem. The arm powered bicycle felt completely stable and natural, riding it was so intuitive and even more fun than the first iteration. Why had I fought this idea so hard in my head? I had this pre-conceived idea that the hand pedals on the arm cycle should be the same as legs, but it was all clear to me now why they should not be. After all, we can grip with hands and if they provide equal forces to each side of the hands bike, then they always balance each other out keeping the bike stable. Legs were better at 180 for other reasons: We usually push on the pedals and having the muscle groups alternate on legs is closer to our natural walking movement.
This hand pedal bike layout now felt special. I could not contain my excitement. It was so fun to ride, I could feel my bike arms working, I could feel the extra power, the speed. It was simply awesome. I had to tell somebody! I had to tell everybody! Why has nobody thought of full cycling before? Why? This hand cycling bike was clearly going to change my life. I could finally exercise my full body outdoors and never get bored. People should know. Could I make these hand cycles for other people to try? I called my brother in Miami to share the news. He had previously lead a successful crowdfunding campaign for a drum machine pedal called BeatBuddy so knew a thing or two about launching a product. Could we do a similar crowdfunding campaign to gauge if there is interest in such a bicycle machine for arms? If successful and we meet our goal, we could go ahead and make them, if not, never mind, I would still have a full body exercise bike of my dreams and that is really what I intended to do in the first place.
Goran was a little apprehensive at first, he was busy with his own numerous projects. It’s a big campaign but we agreed if I could produce an arm and leg bicycle prototype that would look professional as a product in 3 months, he could jump onboard and we could pursue it further.
I dropped everything I was doing and started off on creating a first upper body bicycle prototype. There were a few issues I had to fix first that I discovered on my earlier iteration of the 0 degree handlebar hand pedal cycle. Namely, when you pushed against the handlebars, everything was fine, you had a seat to push against and could transfer full power into the bicycle arm handles. However, on the pull stroke, as Isaac Newton famously said (every action has an equal and opposite reaction), the pulling motion on the arm cycling handles also meant that my whole body would swing forward in tune. I could manage this and it made for a fun cycling technique, but it usually meant hand cycling mostly upright and rocking my full body to keep the hand cycling motion. This had a slightly negative effect on the bike’s movement as the weight of my body would rock back an forth on the arm leg bike, impeding it’s smooth intended forward motion. I could remain in the seat if I wanted, but the pulling motion on the arm handles also put additional strain on my back. Something had to be put in place, something that I could pull against. It quickly became obvious that a some form of a chest pad was necessary that would provide a platform to pull against and also alleviate back strain. It all made sense now. The same principal is used on lats exercise machines in the gym.
It naturally made sense to have the chest pad mounted on the fork stem. It was the right location, would keep the arm and leg bicycle looking clean and sleek and best of all fork stems were already hollow so it was a good place to insert a prospective chest pad.
Another issue I had with the original prototype was the additional handlebar that held brakes and shifters. It was not necessary for steering any more with the 0 degree offset as the hand cycle cranks kept the bike completely stable. What if I could mount the brakes on the handles? That seemed to be the most logical thing, it would be safer as you would not need to take hands off the handlebar to brake plus it would make the whole full body bicycle design simpler with less parts, less weight. Simplifying was always the key objective from the get go. Use as many “off the shelf” parts, keep the design simple, look at what feels natural. So I worked out a design using existing available brake levers and routing the cables through a 90 degree tube on the handle cycles outer ends and then forward. This made sure the cables would not get tangled with the bike with moving arms going in circular motion yet the cables moving only up and down.
It was December 2015, after some consulting with medical and engineering professionals, that I completed the working arm and leg bike prototype of what would become the blue print for Twicycle. It was based on a Road bike frame and geometry, but had handlebars oriented like a mountain bike. The shifters were mounted on the fork stem and the chest pad was mounted in line with the fork steerer. The time was tight, I was due to fly to Miami in the following days so was working late nights in the workshop, CNC-ing parts, layering carbon fiber, sanding etc… I tested the arm leg bike prototype after midnight in a local park, trying to keep away from prying eyes. Silly in hindsight as I later realised during my patent application that people have been inventing similar bicycle with hand pedals contraptions since the 1800’s.
The arm pedal bike caused outrage (and still does) in the cycling community. How dare we change their precious bike. After all it is super important to wear the right socks when on a road bike, what gave us the right to design this blasphemy? Comments also ranged from “it can’t stop”, “it can’t steer”,” it can’t do this or that”… all from people who never even laid their eyes on the arm pedal bicycle in real life, let alone tried Twicycle out. The funniest part is, you could clearly see in the video the leg and arm bike braking, stopping and turning but it didn’t matter to internet trolls. They had their pre-conceived ideas of what bike is and should be and anyone that disagrees with them should be banished. But likely for all the haters, there were just as many adopters, people who were more open minded and who could see the clear benefits such a bike for arms and legs could provide.
In the end we deemed that the response overall was super positive, with our videos amassing over 11 million views in a short space of time.
We were now in preparation stage for a production prototype design of our full body workout bike. The last prototype had flat handlebars like a MTB, but as we were going for a road bike style full body bike, we decided to re-design the handlebars to so that the hand cycle handles were inline with the bike. This would make the full body bike more aerodynamic, allow for a more upright riding position and be more in line with a road bike style. The further benefit was that the shoulder rotating cups were in a better and more natural position ensuring injury free motion. We also looked at feedback from users on various media platforms and decided to design a female compatible “unisex” heart shaped chest pad. (it later proved to be unnecessary as 99% of our customers were male and the rectangular chest pad was better suited for them).
After several months and numerous tests we had locked in our design for what we wanted to be the best arm bike available and launched our crowdfunding campaign. We chose Indiegogo on the plan that if we reached our target, we would receive the funds and could progress with the project but if we did not reach our target, the backers would be automatically refunded. We exceeded our target, had the funds and moved onto the next stage. I had years of previous manufacturing experience in musical products, working with Asian suppliers and logistics firms. I was confident in my abilities, so we set a target of 6 months to deliver our 2wd bikes after closure of crowdfunding. This later proved to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life. What I did not anticipate was how difficult it was to find suitable partners for our hand pedal bicycle. It was unusual, so most bicycle companies were reluctant to take on the full project. After all, they do business with the biggest bike brands that order 200k units per month… why bother with this new hand cycling machine thing? The production process was the most stressful period of my life. We made a promise to people, took their money yet everything that could go wrong went wrong at some point. From numerous delays to parts shortages, I was working until 1am each night only to wake up at 6am to follow up on the progress before they closed for the day (due to time zone differences). This went on for months on end, seriously impacting my well being and causing permanent damage for years to come I would later learn. The pressure was immense, I really felt the responsibility to people, it was more important than anything to me to keep my word and deliver these arm cycles as promised. The saga lasted for 9 months and we were able to deliver our first bikes 3 months late. Looking back at it now, that is not bad at all, but I sure wish we had done things differently.
The delivered arm and leg bicycles were an instant hit with our backers. People were immediately writing to tell us they were super impressed with the quality, component choice and the fun element. Over time we got stories that this kind of dual function bike for arms changed people’s lives, people who had knee injuries were able to get back on the road to follow their passion, other used it for commuting, muscle building their upper body, some had done excess of 20 thousand miles without needing to change components. We also had some constructive feedback to improve a few things and we certainly did with V2.
Whilst all the production was happening Twicycle also made the finals of Eurobike Design awards in 2017. The bike presented was the 4th design iteration prototype. It had a full carbon frame, forks and handlebars as well as carbon fiber derailleurs, seatpost and crankset. Basically all carbon fiber. It came out looking very sleek and light, but this model did not make production due to incredibly high costs.
During Covid period, a lot of people decided to get back into sports and cycling. Bicycle companies saw a great opportunity to sell more bikes and began ordering 4x their usual quantities from manufacturers. With manufacturers having only a limited capacity, this had a snowball effect and caused massive part shortages that lasted for the following 4 years. Only in 2024 did the industry come back to normal. Small bike companies such as Twicycle were pushed to the back of the line and were not able to secure any parts during that period.
After a few years of being sold out and waiting for parts to become available, we finally released our limited edition V2 Twicycles in 2024 built in the United Kingdom. The 57cm frames sold out within weeks. The new V2 arm and leg bikes featured a much improved chest pad as standard (which had been available as an option for V1 as well since 2018), 8 speed indexed shifters on handles (the most requested feature from users) enabling much easier shifting and ride. We also included some other improvements such as better brakes, more carbon, lighter weight, better saddle, improved handlebar mechanism, and improved smoother look and feel of special CNC parts. We are currently in the middle of producing more stock of V2 in Taiwan with bikes expected in autumn of 2025.
Stay tuned and subscribed to our newsletter if you are interested and your bike size is currently out of stock. Also always feel free to reach out and discuss the bike, we are always happy to chat.