hubless wheels

[slomax]

One thing that I have noticed making several very limited appearances are hubless wheels, these look fantastic and are an excellent piece of design and engineering, but will they take off? There are a number of hot rod prototypes and dragster style bikes with them and they really make it, what do people think?

Is it a potential design step to take them into mass production vehicles? and is it easier now that electric motors are making more of an appearance.

If you don't know what they are:-

[CrashTD]

slomax said:

One thing that I have noticed making several very limited appearances are hubless wheels, these look fantastic and are an excellent piece of design and engineering, but will they take off?

No.

You cant turn them easily, hence why they are always on the back.

Cost infinitely more that a 'steelie' bolted to the existing set up.

Far too technical to be mass produced, and the tolerancing is very tight compared to existing drivetrain.

[Huff]

Sbarro have proposed thm on show cars for years. But other than 'becasue you can' I'm struggling to think of a benefit. Nope.

Effectively you've swapped a small bearing, with reasonable(low) surface speed for three or four, higher precision rolling assemblies in which the individual bearing elements (rollers or balls) are exposed to ridiculous rotational speeds and lube problems. So it certainly won't last long...