Years ago, somebody in an office I shared had a picture and accompanying article about a contrivance somebody had built to win some sort of mechanical engineering contest.
This thing looked at first glance like an ordinary bicycle, but when you looked closer, about 120 degrees of at least one of the wheels was missing - the “wheel” was actually a group of segments, apparently rimmed with hard rubber, that did not complete a full circle. I can’t remember how many segments - it might have been only two.
Anyway, as you rode along on this thing, as the trailing segment left the pavement, it rotated quickly around to the front of the arc before the wheel segment still contacting the pavement finished, so that you were continually supported, while maintaining a visible “gap” in the upper part of the bicycle “wheel”.
Apparently, he got it to work smoothly enough that he could ride nonchalantly along on his bike with part of the “wheel” missing.
If anybody has any pointers to this piece of (brilliance or idiocy, take your pick) I’d be interested to see it again.