Want a Spokeless, Hubless Lightweight Bicycle Like This?

Zero by Makota Makita and Hiroshi Tsuzaki, is a hubless, spokeless and very lightweight bicycle powered by cranking magnetic pedals which rotate the tires suspended between other magnets.

The Zero Bike was designed in 1988 (!) by Makota Makita and Hiroshi Tsuzaki, then students at Art Center College of Design in LA.

Rather than spokes around a hub, this concept bicycle has wheel rims cradled by magnets, using the principle of magnetic superconductivity, also used in high-speed trains that are suspended above rails.

Not only does it look mighty interesting, the absence of spokes it is beneficial for the aerodynamics of the bike. Less is more!

However, this design isn’t currently possible to make

While it’s possible to use superconductors to achieve magnetic repulsion, all superconductors operate at temperatures well below normal atmospheric ranges.

While advances have been made in this area of supercoductor research over the last couple of decades, a “room-temperature” superconductor is not even remotely on the horizon.

The magnetic repulsion effect generated by superconductors is not of unlimited strength. The design presented here would require the two sets of superconductors to not only hold up the weight of the cyclist, using a tiny surface area allocated to each wheel, but would also need to counteract the additional forces imposed by braking, cornering, and variations in road surface. The effect of these forces would be magnified by the arrangement of the components, which constitutes a Class 3 lever, with the load being the cyclist atop the bicycle and the fulcrum being the point of contact between the wheel and the ground. In a Class 3 lever, the amount of input effort required is *greater* than the load – hence the forces on the “superconductor” arrangement would be magnified.

Critics have also pointed out that in addition to being technologically unfeasible, this design would also be practically unrideable. Tucking the rear wheel so far forward would give the bike a very biased weight distribution, and the short wheelbase would be super-squirrelly.

What do you think?

Feasible or not?

Want one or pass?

Want a Spokeless, Hubless Lightweight Bicycle Like This?