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.
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.
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.
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.
Now that is a hubless wheel I can get behind. Purposeful, and beautiful. It’s not trying to be something it isn’t. Most casters use a roller bearing anyway, they simply did away with the axle. Nicely done.
As the OP Snob, I decree that I have ultimate judgement on hot-or-hate calls on this thread!
Those are all hot, especially the orange one. And the nakedness of the bearing on a rail is nice too. Most of these casters complement the overall aesthetics, like hubless wheels on bicycles do, and they are REAL.
Do any of them do the job more efficiently, cheaper, or with higher performance than the part they replaced? Probably not. And that’s not a bad thing; it keeps the design movement going. But scale any of these concepts up to bicycle size, and try to ride said future-bike.
We can change the name of the thread to “Official-design-competition-entry-bicycle-hubless-wheel-hater-thread”.