Behold, the Kwiggle

It’s tiny. It’s comfy. And it’s about to hit the U.S. market. How one German engineer reimagined cycling

When I first saw a picture of the Kwiggle, I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at. It didn’t look like a bicycle. Yes, there were two wheels. Yes, there were pedals. But I couldn’t find the seat. The Kwiggle’s shape vaguely reminded me of a C-clamp, the kind used for carpentry.

But then I found the Kwiggle on YouTube. Commercials. Unboxings. People riding it. And everything changed.

The Kwiggle has 12-inch wheels, about the circumference of a dinner plate. The downtube is so low that it almost seems to skirt the ground. Instead of a seat post, it has an arm that bends away from the handlebars, like a robot that’s flexing its bicep. The seat is tiny, and it hovers over the rest of the machine. The bike looks impossible to ride — at first.

But then you watch people do it. They mount the bike in one fluid motion. Their posture is perfectly straight. Instead of bending over, the cyclist is basically…