They do work, but are basically worse in every way.

Bearings are really impressive pieces of engineering that require really tight tolerances to reduce wear and friction. On a traditional bike you have a small bearing at the center that is a standard mass manufactured commodity part.

On these they’re turning the whole wheel in to a giant speciality bearing. It has to spin faster, has to deal with force being applied to a small section rather than the whole bearing, and has way more surface area where dirt could get in and grind against the surfaces.

So these are more expensive, way heavier, higher friction, less reliable, harder to repair, and faster to wear out.

But they look futuristic don’t they?

If it does it is incredibly overengeneered to do the same as a normal bike

It probably does, but I’m just not sure for how long. It’s a lot of force placed in very awkward places. You would need high tolerances so the slop won’t be magnified towards the other end and the leverage would also mean that any imperfection(easy to pick up since the mechanism in unshieldable and on the rim) would very quickly reduce those tolerances to a cheap joke.

Very cool idea and definitely worth trying for the lols but anyone who thinks this would be practical longterm probably doesn’t deserve the dispoable income required to purchase it.

Yep, they’re called hubless bikes.

Reevo’s ebikes do this and use the space in the middle for possible luggage.

Reevo - Reevo Bikes - https://www.reevobikes.com/reevo/

Technically yes, but they’re usually loud af.