Hubless Motorcycle

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If you watch the video you can see that the wheels dont spin just the tires. i bet the rear has type of drive wheel that rolls against the rear tire like the bicycles with little electric motors. it is a nicely engineered mo-fo with out a doubt!!!
Chris
 
I believe there is a ribbed hub/drum (like a dyno drum) that engages the tire under the seat area but you can't see it since it's all covered up.

Sean
 
What a wild looking machine!!

It's gotta have some weird handling characteristics with the loss of gyroscopic stability that the wheel mass provides. I'm guessing it may not feel all that stable at speed. :ummm:

I like it tho!! :thumbs up:
 
I know that bike. I almost went to Amen to get one of thiers before I got my chopper, but I didn't have the coin.

There is a drive weel that touches the rear wheel and via friction it drive the back wheel.

There has been a little feud with drunken scooter rider killer Billy Lane. Lane states that he created the hubless wheel.

There are more example here, even sketches of a Vmax http://www.burningart.com/meico/moto/sbarro/
 
I may be mistaken but I believe Billy Lane's design has a chain or belt ( I think it was a belt) drive. One side of the rim has an extra lip that acts as the sproket or at least a place to attach the sprocket to and you just use and extremely long drive belt that goes around the entire rim. In the case of billy lane's design that is.
 
You are correct, he used a chain. I was just refering to his statments from that old biker build off show.
 

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Various hubless designs have been around for a while. They look striking, and the principle is fairly simple, but the application is an engineers nightmare. I can think of about a hundred things on the road that would destroy one of these off the top of my head, and I sure don't want to be the guy to pothole test them.

In the end, it's just not the safe, reliable way to put a wheel on a vehicle. It might work, but so do plenty of Goldbergian contraptions, doesn't mean it's a good idea.
 
From what I've read, they are basically one large needle bearing. But thats alot of stress, speed & heat for needle bearings no matter how big. The better option is the clear acrylic hubs. It's about 3" thick I believe.
 
I read an article about Billy Lane and the hubless motorcycle wheels. His idea was fairly simple. He used a large bearing meant for a helicopter engine then attached the inner bearing race to the swingarm and mounted a tire / wheel / sprocket combo to the outer bearing race. Simple with awe inspiring looks, although I am sure very expensive and not very practical! Looks like this guy just took that design a step further by doing more to hide what was being accomplished.
 
After looking at it some more it isnt actually "hubless" the hub is just huge. The wheel and tire fit right up against the hub. Looks cool but quite unpractical for mass production. What is that old saying
"Dont try to re-invent the wheel" :rofl_200::rofl_200:
 

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