James Bruton - 2025-01-21
Ad: Use code: PCBWay-James Bruton to get $10 off orders of over $30 at PCBWay. Go to: https://www.pcbway.com/?from=JamesBruton I built an omni-directional ball-wheeled bike. This bike balanced like a Segway sideways, and drives in all directions, which makes it the ultimate drift bike! I used five ODrive brushless motors driving omni-directional wheels, running on large plastic balls which are intended for circus acts to balance on. Active control keeps it upright and twist grips are used to drive and steer. CAD & Code: https://github.com/XRobots/Ball-BIke You can support me on Patreon, join my Discord, or buy my Merchandise: *************************** Discord: https://discord.com/invite/fc6MedG7eW Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/xrobots *************************** Other socials: *************************** Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xrobotsuk Twitter: https://twitter.com/xrobotsuk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xrobotsuk/ *************************** Affiliate links - I will get some money of you use them to sign up or buy something: *************************** 10% off at https://www.3dfuel.com/XROBOTS - use code XROBOTS at the cart screen. Music for your YouTube videos: http://share.epidemicsound.com/xrobots *************************** CAD and Code for my projects: https://github.com/XRobots Huge thanks to my Patrons, without whom my standard of living would drastically decline. Like, inside out-Farm Foods bag decline. Plus a very special shoutout to Lulzbot, Inc who keep me in LulzBot 3D printers and support me via Patreon. HARDWARE/SOFTWARE Below you can also find a lot of the typical tools, equipment and supplies used in my projects: Filament from: https://www.3dfuel.com/ Lulzbot 3D Printers: http://bit.ly/2Sj6nil Bearings from: https://simplybearings.co.uk/ Lincoln Electric Welder: https://bit.ly/2Rqhqos CNC Router: https://bit.ly/2QdsNjt Ryobi Tools: http://bit.ly/2RhArcD 3D Printer Filament: http://bit.ly/2PdcdUu Soldering Iron: http://bit.ly/2DrNWDR Vectric CNC Software: http://bit.ly/2zxpZqv CAD content is sponsored by Autodesk Fusion 360
I was in Engineering school with James. He never missed classes, except for one. It was the class where we were taught not to reinvent the wheel
heh, got 'em.
Very good one. I scrolled away after reading then had to return and like. I got it 3 seconds late.
underrated comment lol
😂
Was that coding class?
Imagine Targets security riding past you on one of these
😂😂
i think this is actually the best comment ever. i need to draw this
Yes draw lt " Only 2 replies I gochu”
Imagine riding out of target parking lot past the cops
The balls would have to be red and white stripes then.
That is fantastic.
Next you need to swap the balls out for green ones so you can easily 'green screen' them away & make it look like a hoverbike.
It would look like the "Oppressor Mk II" from GTA V! This actually drifts like it
Genius!
Or a speeder bike from Empire Strikes Back
Or transparent ones
Brilliant!
That explains why my local target lost the spheres in the front of the building.
FAHHH
Actually, it doesn’t explain why your local target lost its spheres in the front of its building because the spheres in front of target are made out of concrete and the ones that he is using are made out of plastic, a very strong plastic to be exact
@Plant_lover56-13it was a joke dude…
He said they were balancing balls for clowns in circuses
@soradrawz I know
You got some balls creating that bike
BIG ONES!
The balls should be positioned horizontally under the saddle. He oriented them wrong.
@garrysekelli6776I agree. Kinda like the screw drive.
🥁🥁📀
:D
This has to be the coolest ebike ever... I want one!!
I can make one for you tom 😊😊😊
love your videos
Maybe you could help him turn the static charging into some kind of perverse regen - instead of super capacitors ready to dump current back into the motors, you could simply let the frame charge up as it clearly wants to, and periodically dump the current into the cardiac system of the driver and make him yelp! the vehicle forwards.
I would love to see your own rendition of the bike. I AM subbed so ill be hoping to see it later this year :P
Tom, I thought it was Your's at first glimpse!
Tom, it'll be YOUR job to run it with air pressure.
Dude just made the literal coolest thing ever and was like "So yeah it's kind of interesting"
😂😂😂😂😂
He’s having a ball
Profile pic checks out
@Ashgrey0and he’s even subbed to vortrox.
Welcome to england
What amazes me the most is that this is a work of a single person. And not like lifework, but a "cute little side project". So impressive!
Money, brains, and time.. Many of us lack 1 or all 3 of these
I don't want to diminish what he accomplished, but others (the society) helped. He didn't build the motors nor the extrusion and I don't think he fabricated the chips. Other people were involved through there services and products. Also, he tested the bike in a safe environment of a gym which he didn't build.
I love what he is doing and wouldn't be able to do it myself currently, but it is not a thing of one person. We should rather cherish that we have somebody who can bring so much together of what is out there instead of attributing everything to one person - who is non the less pretty amazing
and not just create this thing but also document the process clearly for a video too
@Sleight94yeah bro he didnt build the gym GTFO 😂😂😂
@Sleight94 Even if he was the one who built the gym, you'd say he bought the cement and didn't make it himself! he didn't mine the iron ore from its natural source, melted it, casted it and treated it to make the steel rebars,,,etc what a silly point you've got!
The best thing about watching your channel is that while any other YouTuber would be going "OMG guys!! I CAN'T believe how cool this is!!" you just say "So, yeah, this seems to be alright."
A proper humble engineer
"Keep calm and carry on, lads."
It's really refreshing that there is ZERO overhype or clickbait aspects of it. Just clean, impressive engineering and chill fun. I can't express how undervalued this type of content is. Thank you so much.
it’s inordinately more valuable than clickbait content!
Any other video would’ve been 20 hours long and the build wouldn’t have worked at the end.
It would be title, “something so scary even scientist can’t figure out “. I hate YouTube.
Next project, James builds the Audi from I Robot.
My first thought and hope
Yes please
I was thinking of the same thing
I wanna see one with ONE ball. Add another motor for spin around the Z axis and it's done!
And next the U.S.R transport truck
Bro stole them from target
Underrated comment tbh
That EXACTLY what I thought 🙏
@UrLocalGreenCatnot even a little every other comment on this video is about target in some way
Fr
My exact thought
I’m not sure if it’s just British modesty but you’re so nonchalant about creating the coolest thing ever
i would be proud if this 1 project was my life's work
Has to be 😂😂😂... "right this seems to be working ok" Me from America would have fireworks blasting in the background with banners that say "Coolist thing ever created" OH and cheerleaders 😂
I think that's probably one of the few differences between Americans and British, one is loud and the other is quiet.
Australians are somewhere in the middle.
@JTaylor-on9nz drunken football hooligans would like a word with you
IKR
0:39 today I learned that "juggling shops" are a thing...
have a look in odd balls (Camden Town)
I've heard they are really good at balancing their books.
We* comrade
You should look up hyper-specialist shops that exist in Berlin. One fun example is a shop that only sells textile meat (basically decorative cushions that look like sausages, steaks, etc.).
Takes very strong arms to juggle brick-and-mortar shops though.
Now we can do the akira slide in real life.
This is the MOST Akira-Slide-able machine man has ever created.
If we can get Keanu Reeves to do the Akira slide on this bike, the Matrix will crash and we'll all be free.
from the film footage it looks like the Akira bike generated a lot of static as well. :)
was going to make the same comment. I really want to see it but idk if he can do it without the balls slipping out.
Was looking for thisssssssss
Its the bike from Scavengers Reign! Looks great
That's why I found this video! I wanted to see if the bike was feasible. Turns out it is!
Dude's building the coolest thing ever on his free time
hardly his free time given he states YouTube content is his job :D but surely makes it look like he'd do this just for fun
Man has every engineering enthusiast's dream shop and the skills to use it, it's awesome fun to watch
Doubt we can call it free. YouTube is paying and he has advertising. This is a full time gig
Seriously, people like you are like characters from Star Trek. How a single person can design and built all this is absolutely beyond me.
Cue the old quote about magic and sufficiently advanced technology, lol. But it's so true. It is lovely to see things from sci fi or seemingly from sci fi making their way into the real world thanks to individuals with extraordinary levels of intelligence.
If you understand gyroscopics then really this isn't that hard. Programming the servos to balance was probably the hardest part but I'd bet there's computer programs that set them for you now a days.
If i had funding to waste months on this i could do it😊@supergamergrill2346
@supergamergrill2346 Its still a lot. First you have to design all the parts, then print them, then built them all together, then the programming etc. I don't say nobody has ever done something like this before but it is still impressing.
@hanshandkante5055 Mercedes has experimented with this concept for a coupe. Except Mercedes wanted to mount the ball wheels in a magnetic wheel well. This guy, if he didn't patent this idea might have blown it wide open for Mercedes.
Dear Mr. Briton, I am in a wheelchair, L4-L5 incomplete paraplegic. I have been visualizing of how to mount and control a single ball drive under the seat. It would be a game changer in the wheelchair world!
I agree with you, but it will require that your city is built to accommodate that kind of device... No need to tell you how often you probably meet places which are not design for your handicap. So imagine that balls running away from your chair.... I think robotic is more adapted to your condition. Have you seen how they can perform now? Soon you will have this robotic skeleton which will give you a better mobility and enhance your life. Definitively wishing that for you.
If the ball can deflate, allowing better traction, or the chair has some sort of extension for various obstacles...
In a wheelchair and was thinking the same thing.
I still drive a manual wheelchair though so that would need a entire different system
@chungusamongus519 some sort of heavy duty rubber that can both give grip and allow for constant inflating/deflating
That's a great idea, but you'd need balls that are more tolerant to dirt and with a surface that repels dirt and dust, Note how he is practicing driving this on a gym floor that is cleaned regularly and has a varnished surface.
Admit it you came up with this idea walking into a target
Except there aren't any in Britain
Static electricity is the one thing often overlooked in big projects like this for people making video projects, glad you left the focus on this and grounding issues in for us to see!
Indeed, it keeps the bike grounded
I love when engineers make YouTube channels and get enough subs to do what ever they want, always see the coolest things be made
Do check out Stuff made here if you haven't already checked it. He is the craziest engineer i can think of !!
good point
Don't forget the dead man's switch! Very important for machines that won't stop on their own if the operator falls off or gets injured.
pretty sure the throttle acts as a dead man-- it's sprung to return to neutral (not moving) with nothing applied. 19:10
The balls will just pop out
@ronin6158 kinda - but if the balance sensor is off it'll just correct itself away from you at speed
Definitely agree. We wouldn't want the dead man to get hurt after he falls off the bike. 😜
Or, worse, correct itself over you at speed
You're living in 2077😅 I love it! 👍👍👍👍👍
It's incredible how, amidst the vast number of cool projects on the internet, there are still people who can truly surprise us with their ingenious talent. Congratulations, James.
This is what i imagined engineering was about
but people get stuck into corporations
Yes, we are easily amazed. Why the hell don't everybody do such projects? Homo sapiens is not that sapiens. Only one in fifty are clever enough. WHY are we all so boring?!
@voornaam3191Because modern convenience has allowed the 49 out of a 50 boring people to have a platform and a voice 😂
@voornaam You must be young. Seek therapy. Only boring people are bored.
@Diecast_Rated therapy is expensive doe
Great use case for this: camera crews can mount cameras where the headlight is and catch some groundbreaking cinematography
Too late, these days drones can do every angle and movement that this Omniwheel does
Battery though @xantiom
@enriquebarragan212drones in movies are pretty darn big
@enriquebarragan212 this is also battery powered lol
Nah just use chickens for that
If there was a sport you could play while riding these, I would watch the hell out of it.
Now we’re talking! Maybe like polo with a bit of fighting like hockey
i wouldnt watch that... id be a participant in said sport!
Jousting. Give 2 guys big sticks and see who falls out first
Rollerball ?
Jousting
Now make one that can go on the water
Since balls are empty it technically can go on the water
Big problem is driving on water is very different and requires some sort of paddle to push the water since there is no friction
25:00 for the Akira slide shot
Good to see targets storefront barriers being put to good use.
Gotta delete my comment now LoL should have read before posting lol
i clicked the video to find this comment
@Pluhyuzsame
dead
The most impressive thing about this is how successful that first switch on was. All that engineering, all that coding, wiring, construction, and everything works perfectly first time. It’d be fair to say that there is no one else on the planet that could achieve that.
Well it's pretty much a clone of the Screw-Bike controller, so I'd kind of done it before!
I think you may be pretty fair to say that... Everything is perfect, it's like witnessing a hole in one at the hardest green in a world golf championship...
Indeed. Think how long it would take a typical commercial bike manufacture to come up with teams of people working on something like this even as a prototype. Truly remarkable!
@jamesbrutonthat is one thing I like about your content, you do a great job at designing systems and iterating them forward in multiple projects. How many times have we seen the OpenDog controller? It takes skill to know when you don't need to reinvent the wheel when you're working on your projects to reinvent the wheel. 😉
This is a scaled up version of the project my university has for 2nd year mechatronics engineering students so I think "Only one on the planet" is a bit facetious haha. The hallmark of PID is "works pretty well pretty easily " but it can never be made perfect.
The balancing and sideways movement would be a lot more intuitive (like Segways) if you moved away from PID into system inversion.
Target is sweating balls rn
I've been thinking about this concept since I was a kid like "with enough calculations it should be possible right" and I'm so happy to see a working prototype in reality
Yeah me too, certainly, yeah, I have totally been thinking about it
@yashodhan1905Yes I too have made this idea before and I always thought “According To my calculations, a prototype is theoretically possible” and all my friends would say “English please” and now I’m happy to see that this guy stole my idea
@Tortle8046 Neckbeard
Young sheldon
My idea
"yeah that'll be alright"
You made Segways look like chump achievements. This is amazing from an engineering standpoint imo. Love the work, thanks for sharing
Once this vehicle is able to go 80 mph in all directions it will be impossible to stop we can finally have rocket league irl
Seeing "omni" and two round red balls activated the brainrot within me
I feel like that one guy saying
"STAY IN THE BOX NO STAY IN THE BOX NO GET OUT OF MY SKIN"
i am omniing it. im omniing it so good 😔
@fake_m1zuWHERES OMNIMAN!!!WHERE IS HE!!!??? WHERES OMNIMAN!!!!!!
@venvenunknown9503I feel you man.
@Cursed_Dragoonare you sure?
did you hypothetically steal two Target balls at my local Target?
24:40 missed opportunity for a Manscape sponsorship
Hahahahaha genius
Bruh it’s exactly on beat too😂
There’s some things obviously that would need to be engineered to protect this thing for long term public use, but this is such a cool idea. I really hope there’s a company out there willing to work with him to bring this into everyday use
If the mechanisms to spin the balls wrapped down a bit further just past the median point of the balls, it'd keep them in place so they couldn't pop off. Then you can do jumps too!
Alternatively some brackets could easily hold the balls in place.
Can someone explain why no one is building this kind of bike for atreet use with higher budget and a nice modern cover and mybe some changes too improve it even more…. Like i think lots of peoples would buy it and it would like like something out of an cyberpunk movie. Also it is muche safer than a normal bike if you do it right bc you can’t slip away on the street.
If you use different tires/balls and omni weels you could even have an inbuild suspension etc..
Imagen how sick it would be going 100km/h with this shit leaning to the right and then left going around traffic cones 😂 ypu would beet anyone on a normal bike. Jumping ober shit like wtf 🥹
i've tought of magnets but this seems like a simpler, clever, solution..
@juliuscaesar5270 what about a car that has a system with 4 of these balls?
@Itwascaesar The balls would have to be smooth and hard like in this video, meaning not much traction meaning easy loss of control. These would be hard to stop at higher speeds. Any dirt or grime on the ball would reduce the efficiency greatly, and damage the mechanisms. And driving in wet conditions would probably just be suicide, not to mention it'd damage the bike.
target fears this man
ballcycle
If it had a steel ring low enough to prevent the ball from dislodging, tread for grip over the ball and large torsion spring built into a split frame for suspension, it would be a very practical and fun bike to ride outdoors. Saying that I think this thing is one of the coolest things I've seen on Youtube.
Or what about magnets inside and outside of the balls providing a force that would help keep the balls in place?
Both of the ideas work you could make a single tire under the unit that give pure forward and backwards drive solely for momentum and retracts after speed is met
This could only ever be riden inside so a thin rubber easement of the ball would help with traction along with the ring idea that would make this a fun time
I feel like the "tires" need the most work before you can drive it outside efficiently, like they probably need to be softer like bicycle or car tires and with air pressure
I was also thinking about using magnets to keep the spheres on there! The magnets could be encased with low resistance wheels to reduce friction concerns. This way the sphere would be sandwiched between wheels from the inside and out.
at the moment the wheels are basically a solid plastic too, they would have to be something that can at least somewhat take an impact at low to maybe medium-high speeds against a hard edged surface without cracking
25:52 Mini Akira Slide
I love when a YouTuber builds some complicated stuff without making drama just display the final parts
Dude you made a bike that would be in a "what would the future be" cartoon made in the 19's
James stole the red Target balls and turned it into a bike
LOL
I was gonna say the same thing 😂😂
corporations suck its, this comment i so creepy
@laserbeard328 🤨
@laserbeard328dude whatever are you on about
The fact that you made this yourself completely from scratch is absolutely incredible. It’s genuinely inspiring and a good lesson - you’ve been learning and working and pushing for years, but look what you’ve accomplished. This wasn’t something you just decided to do one weekend with no previous skills; it took decades of learning and experience. Anything is possible, it just takes patience and diligence.
Thank you for sharing!
this is officially the coolest thing i've seen in my entire life
I love YouTube for allowing guys like you to exist and show things like that. Just found out your channel, 15Min deep into the video and I already know I'll binge watch whole channel
@jamesbruton - 2025-09-07
Ball-Bike products are now available! https://james-bruton.teemill.com/search/?search=ball-bike
@the_and_only8460 - 2025-10-02
An Akira bike frame would go craaazy
@Whoooopssssss - 2025-10-15
no we want the bike
@4thelementgroup - 2025-11-05
Elon better not See this🤞🏾🤞🏾🤞🏾🤞🏾Else Billions will be showeting on him to get it to market
@hypnonavy - 2025-11-21
@Whoooopssssss mass production or we riot
@Cosmos-n7t - 2025-12-27
maybe i missed it but where are the suspensions ? or where would they go if you havent put any...