Yale students invent Spokeless Bicycle Wheel

Posted in Personal Transport by Conner Flynn on February 17th, 2010

Several students from Yale University have created a bicycle wheel that does away with the spokes entirely. Pretty awesome. All of our future bicycles will probably look like this one. They should all be patting themselves on the back.

But I’m sad to see the spokes go. Where will we put our baseball cards so we can make that weird noise? It also leaves less room for reflectors. If only bicycle spokes had had a spokes-person, perhaps they wouldn’t now be facing extinction.

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6 Comments to “Yale students invent Spokeless Bicycle Wheel”
  1. Tom Says:

    All of our future bikes will NOT look like that one. These types of design concepts have been around for a LONG time. None of them have actually seen production. Why? It’s a solution in search of a problem. There’s nothing wrong with spoked bicycle wheels. Quite frankly, the spokeless bicycle wheel concept is UGLY.

  2. Rebecca Says:

    Or maybe it’s just that the preexisting design concepts couldn’t find a financial backer. It’s all about money, not UGLY. Plenty of ugly things have made it into the market. Like PT Cruisers! Yuk.

  3. NICHOLAS WALYAULA Says:

    Much as we all get excited over new looks, the spokeless bicycle wheel cannot perform as robustly as the spoked bicycle wheel.
    So saying am currently persuing the registration of my first invention dubbed, “THE SPOKED WHEEL ASSEMBLIES”-that is capable of carrying the stress load upto even ten times ( 10 X ) any the competition currently on the market. For those who want to bare witness please first hand and you are a manufacturer with the capability and the will to take me on, write to walyaula-at-gmail-dot-com, remembering that only the best deserves to be promoted.
    So saying, thanks for letting me air my point in this space.

  4. Ryan Vroom Says:

    Wow, has no one heard of Billy Lane? He’s a motorcycle builder who has been doing this, and alot more asthetically pleasing at that, for years now…this is the best that 9 yale students have?

  5. yezbok Says:

    This design looks like a far less efficient use of energy. Wouldn’t it require more peddle revolutions per wheel revolution? I could be wrong, but…

  6. Manntis Says:

    How is redoing something that others have done for years “inventing”? Google spokeless wheel and you’ll find bicycles, motorcycles, etc. that already do this, as Ryan Vroom alluded to. It’s just not put into production because it’s so much more costly with no benefit other than the look-cool factor.

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