Tinkerer and bicycle lover Champx has created a transparent three-speed gearbox for his homemade “swinger” bike.

Constructed with cogs pulled from other internally geared hubs, the mechanical design is inspired by old tractors. The cranks drive a spindle with three different size cogs, and a brass slider engages keyed teeth inside the cogs one at a time to determine the gear. These turn a lower spindle, which is then connected back to a larger cog that turns an outer axle with the chainring attached on the outside. It’s all housed in a custom made plexiglass case and mounted to his own bike.

This is one of those projects that’s definitely better shown than told, so click on through to see how it all comes together. And see what a “swinger” bike is…

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Paul Lew at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships in 2011

I had the good fortune of sitting next to Paul Lew on the long flight home from Eurobike, and he’s a very interesting man.

An expert in aerodynamics, his story follows along the American Dream pretty well: Find the intersection of your passion and a need, in this case his own needs, and make it happen. From his own brands to consulting for others, and building carbon fiber UAVs for the military along the way, it’s a story best told in his own words. Buckle up and get ready to fly…

BIKERUMOR: Who are you and what are you doing here?

LEW: I’m the director of technolgy and innovation for Reynolds Cycling.

BIKERUMOR: What was your first job or experience in the cycling industry? How did you “break” in?

LEW: In 1986, I started racing triathlon, and in ’89 after I got my second degree I decided that I wanted to do something in the bike industry. I didn’t know what I wanted to do or how to go about it, so I designed a bike wheel. I met a man who was also interested in getting into the industry who had recently sold a company, so he had money to invest. We started a company in Indianapolis, IN, where I grew up, and started designing and manufacturing a spokeless, hubless front wheel for track cycling called the Black Hole…

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My cycling buddies and I pledge at least once a month that we will finally buy the tandem bike.  But we never do.  Why don’t we?  Because if we buy the bike, we will in fact be riding tandem.  By all means, tandem riding is a skill and involves complex maneuvering, planning, and coordination, but regardless of the skillfulness, there is still some hidden comedy to riding a tandem bicycle.

This tandem concept is named the “Twist” and is conceived by Spanish designer Jose Hurtado.  The Twist allows the riders to both conjoin individual bicycles to ride tandem and split the tandem to ride apart.  Hurtado perhaps had in mind the couples that ride into the city together during the week and subsequently depart to their separate jobs.

This is a concept bike that might best exist in a future Utopian world.  In this Utopia, all cyclists would be the same size and own the same perfectly symmetrical bike.  All cyclists would be acquaintances and could proceed to “hook up” tandem to each other when they are so happily inclined.  In this Utopia, there would be no brakes to get in the way of friendship, and no mechanical difficulties with hubless wheels.

As beautiful as this rendered concept is, I’m as scared of this tandem as I am of an actual Utopia. See why, along with more renderings, after the break…

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As usual, Trek World 2011 served as a meeting place for Trek dealers so that they could see what Trek has in store for 2012. Looking beyond 2012 though, for the second year in a row Trek offered a glimpse into what their design teams were currently working on in the forms of pure concepts. One of those concepts might just be the world’s coolest kick bike in the form of the Tron inspired Light Cycle shown above. As with most concepts it’s not production ready, but what kid wouldn’t want to have a Light Cycle as their first bike? Hopefully, Trek can make the hubless wheels work without making it cost a million dollars, which would make it really cool.

Other than the Light Cycle, Trek also showed off some prototype fat bikes, (yes, fat bikes), some useful products, and fashions for the modern lumberjack. Intrigued?

See it all after the break. READ MORE ->

There are lots of hubless bike concepts that we’ve posted, but this one was actually made, has a belt drive, was ridden and has a cool video to prove it. Plus, just based on looks, it could ever so easily be made into a folding bike for campus and city livin’. Here’s the blurb on it from Makezine:

The aim was to use a hubless wheel to create a compact bicycle, with the benefits of a large wheel and belt drive.Hubless wheels have appeared in bicycle concepts already, and were first invented by Sbarro. However, few concepts have made it to prototype and when only used for aesthetic purposes, the disadvantage of extra cost out weights the visual gain. Lunartic uses the hubless for a reason; to house the working parts, reducing the wheel base but not sacrificing conventional riding geometry. Lunartic is supposed to be as compact as possible without folding or being awkward to ride, however there is the potential for the front wheel to fold up into the rear or for that space to be used for a laptop back, motor or dynamo.

See it in action: Video after the break…
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Designer John Villarreal, from Wisconsin, has come up with this futuristic concept bicycle.  Intended to offer a peak into the future, as advances in material technology and manufacturing techniques allow the creation of structures that would currently be impossible, this bike was created by paring away everything non-essential to its function. The hubless wheels appear to turn on bearings running around a modified rim, with unspecified futuristic materials allowing the designer to impart enough stiffness without excessive weight. I don’t think that the big wheel makers will be looking to this as the next big thing but, of course, anything is possible in the future! The integrated handlebar, brakes and lights add to the sleek, futuristic appearance which won’t be to everybody’s tastes. Maybe if Michael Knight is looking for an environmentally friendly alternative to KITT he could speak to John Villarreal.

Forget those road and bmx hubless prototypes, these guys from Yale have built a working bicycle with no hub, spokes or anything else in the middle of the wheel.

Posted on Reddit, they said only the rear wheel is bare in the middle because they ran out of time in the semester, but that a spokeless front wheel would actually be easier and lighter because they wouldn’t have to build in the drivetrain features.

Speaking of drivetrain, here’s the deal:

It’s a single speed setup. We used two cranks and two bottom brackets in the front to gear up the ratio. It goes from (IIRC) 53 to a 13, which is connected to the second crank and another 53 which connects to the rear hub. The rear hub is just a normal ratcheting rear hub that we mated to our belt pulley. Not sure if all these bike terms are right, but that’s the general idea.

The front wheel would be almost exactly the same as the rear wheel except that it could be a little lighter. Some of the aluminum can be shaved off since there’s no powertrain to connect to.

The wheel/rim itself is made from T6061 aluminum.

More pics after the break…

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Right on the heels of the hubless BMX bike concept we found, here’s a similar set up in a road bike by designer Bradford Waugh.  The hubless wheels are driven by geared rollers, but check out the crankset!

More pics after the break…

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Found this on Minimalissimo from Russian designer Nikolay Boltachev.  It’s pure concept, built around hubless wheels and magnetic bearings, and apparently he’s looking for help developing those ideas.  Leave some comments with any ideas, and hit ‘more’ to see additional photos…

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