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Yale MechEng students build bike with hubless wheel

By Rain Noe - February 19, 2010

in Tech | Object Culture

For a class project, nine mechanical engineering students at Yale devised a working bicycle with a hubless wheel. It's suspension-free and they only had the time and resources to go hubless on one wheel, but it works:

Why do it? As one of the students explains,

First, it looks cool. Second, we only had a semester so we wanted to pick something that was both feasible and challenging. Also, you can do a lot of things with the space that opens up where the spokes use to be. You can stick an electric motor in there. You can install some sort of gyro balanced storage basket. Finally, the fact that we couldn't find pictures of a real spokeless bicycle online really sealed the deal.

via reddit

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BigPaul

10 years ago

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This type of wheel normally does not outperform regular wheels. However, in the case of a Recumbent Reverse Trike, the front wheels would provide better handling, without deflection, if the attachment points are placed right at the bottom of the wheels. This would provide near zero deflection! Also the steering would be very precise!
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Pablo

11 years ago

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Good work, but the hype they presented is what drew negative responses. It is pure arrogance of the ivy league Yale students to think that this is a first for anything but them.

Go to a real engineering school and see what is being done.
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Brian Gangelhoff

11 years ago

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Someone please explain how this is hubless? Isn't it still a hub that propels the chain drive? You just moved it out to the rim. Spokeless yes.
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Burgs Bugilian

11 years ago

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I'd have failed them. the spokeless bicycle wheel ... please enough. it's been "designed" a billion times. and this isn't the first working model. they're MUCH heavier, weaker, less resilient and much more difficult if not impossible to true.

anyone who designs one as anything other than a novelty/movie prop should be kicked out of design/engineering courses.

lol YALE SUCKS.
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Joe

11 years ago

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Kudos to the student but fyi. The first time I've heard of hubless wheel was in the 80s. Google Franco Sbarro. He incorporated hubless wheel on his cars and motorcycle.
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Tracy

11 years ago

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In real world use, the tracks would fill with dirt & debris so fast that it would stop working. A regular bicycle is open & so all of the dirt falls out of the sprocket as you ride.
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John Gamboa

11 years ago

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To all the haters: 1) How feasible was the Wright Flyer or the Edison Phonograph? Sometimes just making a working example fulfills the requirement, refinements can and will come later.
2) WTF? I say you are jealous of the creativity of others, and that is just sad.
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Gridlock

11 years ago

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Hmm. Looks pretty cool, but in the practical sense, here is one killer question, "How well does it handle going over curbs or bumps?"

From the looks of it, a bit of trapped dust will destroy the gearing in the wheel system. It also looks unable to handle a decent bump in the road (shock absorbers are critical as roads get worse in this economy). It also looks unable to withstand any sideways shearing forces (such as a light kick to the side or a slight twisting force in the back wheel).

I'll be kind and not even bring up the issues of gearing speed variances for desired force multipliers.
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MZUNGU

11 years ago

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What do you mean hub-less? it has the biggest hub I ever seen, it is as big as the wheel.
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Steve

11 years ago

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Hubless wheel

http://sbarro.perso.neuf.fr/technique/roue_orbitale/roue_orbitalegb.html
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rc

11 years ago

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Kudos to the team for creating a hubless wheel. It looks quite complicated but also extremely heavy. As a cyclist (mountain and road), I disagree with the need to prevent articles from becoming entangled in the spokes. This is not a valid argument. Every wheel on earth has spokes to some degree because they work well. It would be better to see this technology applied to a more fitting application. Bicycles do not need hubless wheels, but perhaps power generation or medicine could benefit somehow.
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joey z

11 years ago

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Billy Lane has been doing this since the 90's with his motorcycles.
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dave

11 years ago

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There are actually a number of reasons you might wish to employ a hubless wheel. A wheelchair design a friend and I had linked from the WSJ was hubless...and the reason for that design choice was to remove the possibility of articles (or the chair user's hands) becoming snagged/tangled in any arrangement of spokes. Use your imagination a little before you knock down someone's idea.
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jp

11 years ago

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It may be a neat idea.. But the friction is increased in that design and damn. They didn't take aesthetics into account whatsoever. What an ugly design all around..
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-JR

11 years ago

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What a bunch of debbie downers here. The point of exploration is expansion of knowledge. The attitude of "screw it-WHY NOT?" gets a lot more done than poo poing ideas because some random person has attempted the same....

Bike looks bad ass.
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Sarah Taylor

11 years ago

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http://lostmachine.com/projects/pirateship/index.html
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Sarah Taylor

11 years ago

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Back in 2004 my friend Andy Tibbets decided to build an art car for Burning Man designed around a large hubless wheel. In 2010, this is what we had built (Hopefully the link works). What a wonderful project to be a part of :)
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zzx >>tim

11 years ago

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why do people drive 300k supercars if they can drive VW Golf MkII, or 60k GTR's if looking for speed ??
Simple people ask "WHY ?", designers say "Why NOT ?"
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tim

12 years ago

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lol, the ONLY point of a hubless wheel is to make a vehicle look cool.

now if you use a hubless wheel and still manage to make the vehicle look horribly ugly, you have failed on an epic scale.
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Destiny

12 years ago

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Hey, hi please can any body pls aid me in how to build a hubless wheel. i have that as my project and i need vital information on it and how to manufacture a Hubless Wheel. Pls can anyone help me out, its urgent! Thanks!!!
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Steve Dimitropoulos

12 years ago

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I have read all the reasons not to persue the rimless wheel however I with your help and guidence I would very much like to develope my own prototype.If you could help me find information as a way to manufacture a spokeless wheel I would greatly appreciate it.Having said that we do not know eachother and therefore you do not owe me a thing if you don't want to help no hard feelings.
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Charles

14 years ago

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Its not hard to say no one else has built it, if you dont bother looking.

The Monocycle
http://www.benwilsondesign.co.uk/
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Rob Podell

14 years ago

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Argh. ATTENTION DESIGNERS. Stop with the hubless wheels. They don't look that cool, once you realize the look equates to heavier, less durable, less reliable, etc etc etc.

Normal wheels are cool because they outperform hubless stuff in EVERY category.
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matt tanicello

14 years ago

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Its nice to see that this mans invention http://www.natuba.com/photo/FPtil8/ is being incorperated for other forms of transportation. It is a decent prototype and good idea for a school project but un practical for the public. The weight alone is a turn off and the cost of materials to make it light would be a turn off the. The fact that it needs 2 gear systems to generate enough rpms shows that their is alot to be done on the project.
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