"Unless perfectly balanced, a flywheel has a propensity to always come to rest with its heaviest point at bottom dead centre: in the case of a treadle powered piece of equipment, a straight connecting rod will simply try to pull straight downwards, thus not translating into rotary motion, without a push on the flywheel to start it off. A 'U' shaped con-rod should ensure that downward pressure on the treadle will translate to rotary motion, without the need for a push on the flywheel."

"Four castors seems like an odd choice for a piece of kit that's to be used outdoors, as unless the ground is perfectly flat, there'll always be a wheel in the air and the annoying wobble that comes with it. That can't happen with three points of contact, hence the reason old-fashioned milking stools always have three legs."

"It appears to me that high-end product marketing is not dissimilar to marketing high-end, thought leadership-based services. An excellent source of advice on this type of marketing is a dude called Jason Mlicki, who runs a firm called Rattleback, in Columbus, Ohio. Check out his website: it's packed with useful stuff."