The Official Hubless Wheel hater thread.

Slippyfish: I know how you feel. I feel the same way when I see these concepts presented as such a breakthrough. When I get around to assembling my list of useless design concepts that get re-blogged yearly as breakthrough design, I will definitely add the hubless wheel bicycle to the list!

Ha! Make sure you blog about it!

I feel the same way about about hubless wheels; people seem to design with them because they are “cool”, not because they are practical.

On another note I always have wondered how the tweel tires work in mud or snow? Does stuff just get jammed into all of those crevices and throw the whole thing off balance? When I had my Audi and Subaru I used to spend a lot of hours sliding around in the snow and mud, and when I got up to highway speeds I would notice real quick if there was any in the wheels. I can only imaging it being much worse with the Tweel.

I have visited few south asian countries and you will find one thing in common that dogs and cats freely roam on the streets. Often they get killed by the vehicles, this spokeless wheel can be a saviour for them; when they can just go through the wheel. : :laughing:

Thank you for starting this thread.
Hubs.jpg

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Im not a hater of it. but every time I see it in a concept, it just screams lack of creativity and research.

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Yea! My bike made it onto a hater thread.

I think hubless wheels look awesome in some applications but not all. To be honest, there’s just no benefit to it over a normal wheel right now. The concept itself is cool but I think there’s gotta be a better application for it.

Hubless wheels are great the first time you see one, for about 3 seconds until you try to justify a need for one.
It always looks like you’re trying way too hard.

How about mono-wheel bikes? Doesn’t this guy look like Wile E. Coyote? :laughing:



Someone had to do it, so ill be the one who post the SP equivalent :slight_smile:

I just don’t think were at the point in materials to make the wheel light enough to be efficient. The spoke laced bicycle wheel, aside from being beautiful, is an incredibly strong design while being incredibly light weight.

Hubless and mono-wheels, aren’t exactly “new” ideas… and seldom reach production status.

But then there’s the story of 18 year old Ben Gulak’s “Uno”…

Those are great old images! Ahh, the smell of optimism. And rubber. And burning flesh.

Don’t forget Johnny Knoxville standing in for the hub of the wheel, bouncing down a ski slope on Jackass.

Those are great old images!

I like the aerodynamic wheel spats on the second one…

Being a horse-drawn vehicle fan I especially like this one; note the outriggers … so I guess this is actually a tri-cycle.

There are a ton more, check out the link.

Hmmmmm…


That hubless bmx could have peg mounded to it, but they would be like the super old school fold downs and flat land bikes with their little pedestals all over them. Thus ruining the minimalist thing they had going.

lol

Great thread! It seems like those hubless wheel designs pop up in waves…and there have been a lot of them in the last few months.

Remember the “Wear and Tear” Black Hole wheel that went into production in the early to mid 90’s (Hubless wheels | Bicycle Design) ? The idea wasn’t practical then, and it still isn’t.

Completely forgot about that ridiculous concept! Sure, it saves a pound… but so would changing half the components on that bike…

I realized after I posted that I linked to a picture of the prototype Black Hole wheel in my last comment. The actual production model can be seen at The amazing shrinking Black Hole and a Lime | Bicycle Design

It is funny to see how much the opening shrunk in order to actually get this thing to work. I never got a chance to ride one of these, so I don’t know how well it worked anyway, but the company certainly didn’t last.

Um… hi everyone, my name is Jensen and I’m a hubless wheel hater. I try to keep my feelings to myself, but it’s so hard lately. Everywhere I go, I’m surrounded by people who just love hubless wheels, with no idea the kind of danger it poses. I know. I used to be one of them. I even rode after putting hubless wheels on my bicycle. I consider myself lucky not to have crashed and hurt someone. Anyway, I’m here and I’ve been hubless-free for 26 years now.

:)ensen.

Um… hi everyone, my name is Jensen and I’m a hubless wheel hater. I try to keep my feelings to myself, but it’s so hard lately. Everywhere I go, I’m surrounded by people who just love hubless wheels, with no idea the kind of danger it poses. I know. I used to be one of them. I even rode after putting hubless wheels on my bicycle. I consider myself lucky not to have crashed and hurt someone. Anyway, I’m here and I’ve been hubless-free for 26 years now.