Concept Bikes & Bike Innovation - for better or worse

Looks like another kickstarter failure coming up.

It’s total bonkers! What happens in a crash?

It could take an eye out or maybe even impale.

"A unique invention that has the potential to reshape the cycling industry"

Well, mounting it arse backwards on the worlds worst seat post is some sort of reshaping I suppose

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Lols. I did spot that, there’s just so many wrong

Arse forwards shirley?

Maybe it’s actually mounted the right way round

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Arse forwards shirley?

Let's not pull at that thread, or we'll have to consider "head over heels" 🙂

PMSL. Conceived by someone who never had to hop off the back of their bike to make a crash less bad.

https://www.k-o-m.co.uk/infinity-drive
Some interesting hub developments from the Peak District.
Increasing stiffness by moving the bearings further from the centre of the hub, but introducing proprietary discs and a slightly questionable 'cassette carrier' interface.

How many people are breaking axles? I haven't broken an axle for years. My missus broke one because she let her bearings turn to soup and the wheel exploded - nothing to do with bearing placement or flex or whatever.

Not necessarily breaking axles, but reducing bearing life due to higher bending of axles. Maybe that axle would have survived if the bearings were further apart and didn't turn to soup quite so quickly ;)

Right. I haven't replaced bearings on my MTBs yet. I've no idea what lifespan they'll get compared to my old stuff. I do less miles now but the ones I do are 'harder' on moving parts.
But I also like to stick with the most 'standard' of the standards so will almost certainly never buy anything like this.

interesting

That's putting it a bit strongly. They seem to be congratulating themselves on "inventing" the torque tube which was in Powertap hubs twenty years ago. I'm not sure that solving a problem which doesn't exist with a design which is decades old qualifies as "innovation", and certainly not for better.

This is the reponse I was waiting for :)

Yet to see a significant improvement over Shimano's freehub. Quiet ratchet and cup'n'cone for the win.

“Normally the drive side bearing in the middle of the hub”
I don’t think so.

“Normally the drive side bearing in the middle of the hub”I don’t think so.

It's true (within the bounds marketing speak) for a lot of hubs, both boutique and mass market OEM, where the freehub stator doesn't extend beyond the hub shell. The hub shell is supported >50mm inboard of the DS dropout, which is close enough to the middle.
Of course, it's not true for typical Shimano designs which rigidly bolt an extended freehub stator to the hub shell, or for Mavic FTS types which extend the shell through the middle of the free hub to provide a support bearing more like halfway from dropout to centre.
The question is whether it matters. Look at, for example, the Hope Pro 4. The hub shell is supported on the axle inboard of the DS flange, the bearing must be pretty close to overlapping the centre plane of the wheel. Do we hear a lot of short bearing life and broken axles? Not really.

It's over £800 and sounds like shit.

Powertap was bought out before I knew my cup and cone from my cartridges. I found it interesting just because it’s different from the norm. The thread title says ‘for better or worse’, and I’m not going to jump on either side, but it made my brain work for a few minutes.

It's over £800

That's for a pair of hubs, the rear hub where all the "innovation" lies is only £550 in standard colours, plus £50 for the proprietary brake rotor.

Bargain! Please remind that Nigerian Prince that I am waiting for his call. Now, where did I leave my snake oil?

Do people who come up with these gadgets/widgets genuinely think they’ve created something that’s going to move the needle?

To me it looks like at best a fraction of a percentage performance increase at a cost of a whole bunch of extra parts ie points of failure and unknown long term reliability. And a squillion dollaridoos.

Do they really think it’s that good?
Or just trying to con dentists…

Hubris amongst engineers is a problem.
Look at all the car manufacturers who make awful concept bikes. The bike is shit but the designers are thinking “We’re way smarter than those bicycle guys”.
John Raders are very rare.

Dunning-Kruger is everywhere.

I'm getting a little tired of Shimanos determination to do everything cup & cone though.