Inventions in Everything: The Rowing Bicycle

According to the Harvard Medical School, going for a ride on a bicycle is as exercise that’s good for your heart and muscles”, “easy on the joints” and can even help build bone.

The same health authority however has published data that says hopping on a stationary rowing machine for 30 minutes of “vigorous” rowing activity burns can burn more calories than riding a bicycle for the same amount of time at speeds of 12-15.9 miles per hour.

So if you only had 30 minutes in which to get all your exercising in, which activity would you choose?

Most boosters of exercise and physical activity will tell you the right answer is do the activity you will enjoy the most. But that’s not how inventors think. The truly innovative will take on this question by coming up with a solution that would never occur to medical professionals: they would figure out how to get even more bang for your 30 minutes worth of exercising bucks.

Which brings us to today’s invention, which combines both these activities: the rowing bicycle! Here’s what it looks like, as seen in Figure 1 of U.S. Patent 642,544:

It’s inventor, Louis L. Burbank, describes the invention and his objective in creating it in the body of the patent, which was issued on 30 January 1900:

This invention has relation to bicycles and tricycles; and it consists in the novel construction and combination of devices constituting the propelling and steering mechanism.

The object of the invention is to provide means whereby one may enjoy with a bicycle or similar vehicle exercise like that of rowing with a pair of sculls, which is adapted to develop the muscles of the arms and body as well as those of the legs.

Thanks to Burbank’s innovation, bicycling and rowing enthusiasts no longer need to choose between these two activities. They can do both at the same time!

A modern, prototype version of Burbank’s invention exists, although it isn’t available for sale. Meet the Rowcycle!

The Rowcycle project was developed in 2017, but since it didn’t gather interest from any potential industrial cooperation partners, it was shelved. Another prototype rowing bicycle also exists, the RoadRower, but hasn’t been launched as a commercial product you can easily buy. Yet.

That puts Louis S. Burbank’s invention into a special category. From a market perspective, it’s a failure because it’s not commonly available. On the other hand, in terms of potential, in the more than twelve decades that have passed since the concept was patented, it’s still an inspiration for modern bicycling and rowing enthusiasts seeking to further develop the concept. It’s very much a living concept, which makes it unique among inventions that would otherwise be considered dead ends.

From the Inventions in Everything Archives

The IIE team has previously covered two other types of exercise equipment:

• Inventions in Everything: Treadmills Inside Your Shoes
• The Bike That Rides You