The Rube Goldberg Exercise Bike will fan you and feed you a cookie while you work out

Transcript

Seth Goldstein didn't set out to build an exercise bike that scratches your back, keeps you cool and hydrated, and rewards you with a cookie for your efforts. It just kind of worked out that way.

"I had this crazy idea. I wanted to make a real Rube Goldberg-like machine that would scratch my back," he said, referring to the late artist known for his depictions of comically complicated machines that perform simple tasks. 

"And then the question was how to implement it. And I thought of using a bicycle to make that happen. And it just got more complex from there."

The retired mechanical engineer has dubbed his latest invention the Rube Goldberg Exercise Bike. On Monday, he told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann all about it.  

Goldstein spent 31 years working in bioengineering at the U.S. National Institutes of Health before retiring in 2002.

But an engineer, he says, never really retires. Instead, he has devoted his time and energy to the creation of elaborate, Rube Goldberg-esque moving machines he calls "kinetic sculptures."

Among his creations are the Why Knot, a machine that fastens and unfastens neckties, and the Ro-Bo, a machine that plays the violin.

His work has been displayed at the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

"I remember my dad teaching me about how a canal lock works when I was about five years old, and that really got me interested," Goldstein told Mann.

"And then my family took a trip to the Hershey factory where they make candy bars. And I remember being absolutely transfixed by these machines that wrap the candy bars. It was a real mechanical thing. And that really got me hooked."

The multi-purpose exercise bike began as a simple back scratcher, but Goldstein says even that turned out to be huge challenge. 

He lost more than a couple shirts off his back before he decided to swap a traditional back scratcher for a rotating whisk. He also added a fan to stay cool while the whisk relieves his back itch.

While testing the device, he found himself getting parched from the workout. So he devised a system wherein pedaling the bike rotates a turntable that sets off a complex sequence of events, culminating in a valve opening and filling a cup with a beverage of your choice. 

"But that only happens if you pedal fast enough and for a long enough time," he said. 

But why stop with a drink? Surely, he figured, he deserved a greater reward for all his efforts. So the machine now also gives him a cookie if he pedals for a certain amount of time. 

The pedals are attached to a bicycle pump that fills a balloon, which trips a mechanism that releases a cookie down a chute. 

"I figured I'd give myself a break. I don't have to pedal fast, just long enough," he said. 

But not every cookie was up to the task. Goldstein says he went through a lot of trial and error before finally landing on Keebler Sandies, which are wide enough not to fall over, and tough enough to withstand the delivery process unscathed. 

"Oreos didn't work," Goldstein said. "They just splintered whenever they fell and they didn't roll that well either."

Goldstein says working on the bike has been a balm during the pandemic, keeping him occupied with something other than the state of the world.

And it's allowed him to collaborate with his wife Paula Stone, a retired engineer whose input and ideas have been invaluable to the process, he says.

"His whole lifetime, he's had this passion for making things," Stone told the Washington Post.  "I just so admire him for that. He's so lucky to have a passion, to have been supported in that, to have an aptitude for that, and he just loves doing it. It's kind of wired into his system to make things."

The appreciation, Goldstein says, is mutual. 

"She's been my constant companion in all these things and has been enormously helpful," he said.

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Katie Geleff.