28
It Took $6.7 Million to Build the World's Worst e-Bike: Hubless, Over-Engineered, Unsafe
(www.autoevolution.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
28 points (100.0% liked)
micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
2705 readers
90 users here now
Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles, heelies, or an office chair: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
Feel free to also check out
It's a little sad that we need to actually say this, but:
Don't be an asshole or you will be permanently banned.
Respectful debate is totally OK, criticizing a product is fine, but being verbally abusive will not be tolerated.
Focus on discussing the idea, not attacking the person.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I wouldn't buy one, but for the sake of a counter-argument: Hubs have been around for a long time and have had many refinements over the years. Many of the flaws that the hubless design suffers from might very well be mitigated through further development over the next hundred years or so. Still, I prefer the repairability, practicality, and reliability of a wheel with spokes as well.
Sure, additional refinement could make hubless wheels a reasonable reality. I'll reiterate one of my original points: all engineering advancements that would make a better hubless wheel would also improve the already great hubbed wheel. Even if we could ignore the complexities of going hubless, the radially supported wheel will be stronger, lighter, simpler, less expensive, more aerodynamic, more repairable.
I might be getting a bit esoteric here, but the same conversations come up in software engineering. "Advances in computing will make Ruby more performant." Sure, but those advances will be multiplicative in already-performant languages such as C, C++, and Go, whereas they will be fractional in Ruby.