The 'Unrideable Bike' Demonstrates How Bikes Actually Work

It is very likely you have ridden a bike at some point in your life. The question is how exactly do you do that? 

There's a reason the expression "it's just like riding a bike" exists and it's because once you learn to ride a bicycle you do it automatically.

Now, the bicycle has a long and complicated history. The original inventor of the bicycle could be considered Giacomo Caprotti who was a student of Leonardo da Vinci. 

But how does it work today? YouTuber Veritassium built an unrideable bike to examine this question.

The bike is basically operated by a radio controller which determines whether the bike will go right or left. It does this by removing a screw on either side of the bike. 

The rider is advised on which side he should be turning through a LED light that lights up.

All this makes it extremely difficult to ride the bike with the YouTuber falling over nearly every time he needs to make a turn.

What does this experiment prove about bikes? How was the special bike constructed? What can it be used for? This video answers all these questions and more.