A hubless BMX and a helpless designer
I just received an email from Nikolay Boltachev, a beginning graphic designer from Russia. He has been working on a concept for a BMX bicycle with hubless wheels – and it’s starting to look pretty great!
However, to take the next step in his project, Nikolay is now urgently looking for more information about hubless wheels and/or magnetic bearings.
Perhaps any of you have been working on a similar project, and have gained some knowledge about this topic?
If you do, please share it via the comments, and gain some major karma points!
- 08.02.2010 .
- Maarten .
- Tags .
- Category:
- Industrial design
- Object:
- Bicycle
- Designer:
- Nikolay Boltachev
- Agency:
- Zigzag Studio
- Other attributes:
- Concept
- Add this .
- 24 comments
Thats one off the hook, sick, nasty BMX. I just sent a tweet out to the planet looking for folks who know something about the tech. Everybody should do the same. Good luck.
Peace,
Doug
twitter: @dugla
Thanks Doug!
There is industrial designer named Tai Chiem that has done a electric scooter maybe he knows something about it. It seems like if it was his final assaigment or something symilar.
You can put yourself in contact trough this page
http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_work.asp?individual_id=181914
Good luck
http://www.osmos-wheel.com/pages/r_d.asp?lang=en
i think the fork, and the…”rim stay”…or what used to be the seat and chainstays….need to connect to the wheel on both sides.
else it might not be able to take the shock of hard landings.
it looks super rad though.
jd.
There’s no way anyone will ever ride this, ever.
I’m sorry, but it’s a terrible idea and will definitely snap in half.
What’s the advantage of this approach, other than just trying to look cool? Without understanding that it might just be unicorn chasing.
this thing is disgusting, and it will never hit the markets. waste of time and money.
I work at a bike shop and this design would sell but it would probably be very exclusive. Largely because the tech that would be required to make this a reliable ride able rig is going to be expensive. Sure it look like it is week but I thought the same thing when I first so the Cannondale Leftys.
I am sure some people would buy it for uniqueness and I would guess lightness. But then again the wheels might have to be quite heavy.
Cool design but I’m just not to sure if it is worth it.
Won’t ever work. Hubless wheels are nothing new for motorcycles. There is a reason that Ducati isn’t using them on their MotoGP bikes. They aren’t really hubless — the hub in this case is actually the same size as the rim itself. Larger hugs require larger bearings. Larger bearings are heavier. Where rotational mass is considered weight = bad.
This is yet another case of a design student taking something functional and completely foregoing function for the sake of form.
Keep going, you can solve it.
Don’t listen to the doubters. They’re so aggressively anti-innovation. Why so hostile?
Mechanical engineering majors at Yale are working with the tech. Perhaps drop them an email?
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/b2g91/spokeless_bicycle/
Where do I install the pegs?
probably also pretty hard to do a nose pick without a full fork to put your foot against although that likely wouldn’t be much of an issue after you tear the frame out of the rim doing your first bunny hop.
hubless = weak, heavy, expensive, or all 3
sorry
chainless = about the same thing
even the seatpost on this thing looks improbable
wle
A truly terrible design in every way. What PROBLEM with existing BMX bikes is this intended to solve? Excessive resistance to catastrophic failure? Ability to perform the standard repertoire of flatland/ramp tricks? Beauty and elegance?
Weak.
The following is from the wikipedia link provided in the original post, and sums up quite neatly why this is an interesting exercise in design, but is a failure as a BMX bike:
“Although hubless wheels are striking in appearance, their numerous practical disadvantages have precluded their widespread use as an alternative to conventional wheels.”
There is a reason the basic design of the bicycle has remained functionally unchanged for well over a hundred years.
Man, I would never, ever ride something like that. A designer is just wanking off unless he or she makes the bike sturdier, lighter, or faster. This design would make the bike weaker, heavier and slower.
Like Jeff pointed out above, can you imagine a those kinds of wheels surviving a bunny hop? Instead of the spokes transmitting the force throughout the entire rim, the ball bearings in the rim assembly take all the shock? Yeah, that’ll be a short, jerky ride.
And considering the rider would be right over the middle of the long uni-tube (no downtube), one careless landing could split the bike right down the middle. And no pegs???
The late, great David Hume said something to the effect that it is better for a thing to exist both in understanding and reality. This POS apparently has little hope of either. Why does everyone have to get a degree?
Why stop just with the hubless wheel? Why not make it generate electricity that can power your house, just by pedaling?
Props on the pretty rendering, but hubless concepts (like power generation through pedaling) have been around forever, and have remained firmly concepts. Sure people can make them work, but they end up sucking big time due to weight, cost, friction, drag, etc. etc.
There are numerous reasons for this, but you’d be better off trying to build a rocket that can go into orbit than wasting your time pursuing this idea.
Seriously – real-life bike designers go insane when another of these things pop up on the nets. There should be a cadre of bike design fashion police ready to give the smackdown. Why the hostility? Because it makes designers look like idiots.
Here’s some free advice from another designer:
It helps to understand the function of the thing you’re designing. You obviously don’t.
This is just stupid. You can find Middle School hot rod doodles with more practical and innovative design.
That is the most awsomest thing i have ever seen. All you kids think that tis bike will break, it wont, there is some pretty strong metal these days. and who needs pegs. Now that i have seen this every other bike i look at is ***t. BEST IDEA EVER
It looks sick when can i get one and how much is the damage