Booleanboy
All that effort expended on designing the wheels and none left for the frame of the bike? What an ugly, bloated monstrosity!
David V
Stunning. I love hubless wheels. But they never hang around for long. All the motorbikes (expensively) designed with these have disappeared. Nice to see them back again on a bicycle. Seems a cheap starter price for such tech though. But for me, the best thing about bicycles... is that they are so simple to service, repair a flat, brake pads... get me ?
paul314
So if the interior parts of the wheels don't rotate, why didn't they go whole hog and offer panniers? (I know unsprung weight, but still it would look cool.)
Scott Sloan
“Bloated” is a little strong. Cannondale produced an arguably revolutionary Raven with magnesium and carbon fiber frame in the late ‘90’s for weight savings and it was spectacular.
jerryd
All this is a tracked vehicle only with a round track running on drive bogies/wheels and there certainly is a rim the tires is put on, fairly like a normal one, just without spokes.
No reason for it to be weaker, just design it right and since a large built in reduction, can be quite powerful in torque.
You could even make it into a suspension by designing the composite parts correctly. I do it in my wind turbine blades where they are flat for high rpm, power in lower wind speeds and pitch for high speeds without parts, just how the blade as laid up.
This gives me about 50% more electricity than a fixed blade.
You can see how it is attached, steered just like a regular bike, just the forks are very short and shown in the pic.
As for the frame, it holds the battery and looks very advanced, lightweight as the bigger section cuts loads so the walls can be made thinner..
BlueOak
A highly appropriate dose of technological engineering cynicism by Loz about whether this gadget will successfully function in the real world.

Hopefully they invested in a bearing company to fill that long wheel diameter space. How are weather and grit reliably prevented from entering such a long bearing trace? Especially a located so closely to the point of forces acting against it, with only the tire - and no spokes - to suspend and isolate it?

With this Rube Goldberg solution to an eBike, solely for the purpose of showing off, one wonders economically, after spending all that money on the spokeless wheels, how much is left over for the rest of the bike? Especially with a price of $1,999 that is not much higher than existing solidly made mainstream eBikes.
nick101
Having two contact points would make me feel a lot better about something like this, and it IS cool looking. Why not a dual contact in a 45 degree array? That would seem to be a lot better. I'll wait for those.
Fred Schechter
1992 and Franco Sbarro would like a word Loz. This isn't new and it works.
János Simon
I am skeptical, the rim must be thick and heavy to hold a wheel out of Center Point. I am not convinced how it performs in mud or dirt. A traditional bike is far more lightweight - than more efficient. In my eyes, this solution is nothing more than a gimmick. Would fit into a Marvel movie.
Douglas Bennett Rogers
The hub area is a great place for cargo, except for steering inertia in front. This design doesn't need any rim brakes as it can have always on regenerative braking. Weight is saved by eliminating the gear train and moment arm in the wheel. Rim drive provides the lowest loss for regenerative braking. I was skeptical at first but I think I have sold myself on this!