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So perpetual motion machine?
Would love to hear the opinions of some actual mechanical engineers. Can these springs really passively get you +30% efficiency? What about weight? Cyclists are obsessive about reducing rotating mass, and these wheels seem to be seriously chunky. Is this actually a thing that could work?
Now, because of that annoying thing called conservation of energy, this means that you'll have to put this energy into the system by pushing down harder. I guess this translates to a feeling of sitting on a spring. That doesn't sound like very efficient pedalling.
It claims to be "weight assisted". Yeah, that's not how it works.
> The action/reaction force caused by weight compresses the springs in the upper section of the wheel and decompresses in the lower section. Using the centre as the pivot, this converts energy and reduces the frictional force in the opposite direction and facilitates the rotation. Using 10kg active weight, the mechanism is shown to generate a moment ranging from 7.3Nm to 7.8Nm.” So perpetual motion machine?
Being a physicist, the name of the tech ("Weight (Mass) to energy Conversion Technology" [2]) triggered my BS detector pretty hard but I would like to give them the benefit of doubt.
They have a Twitter page with lots of close-up images of the wheel [3]. There is one with a sketch of forces at [4] which might give insight into their reasoning (which does not necessarily mean that it is correct).
[0] https://www.superwheelsystem.com/how-super-wheel-works/
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles_tendon#Other_animals
[2] https://www.superwheelsystem.com/
[3] https://twitter.com/thesuperwheel/
[4] https://twitter.com/thesuperwheel/status/1275715365570588672...
I look forward to reading that. Cycling magazines usually do a fairly rigorous evaluation of new tech in their articles.
Would love to hear the opinions of some actual mechanical engineers. Can these springs really passively get you +30% efficiency? What about weight? Cyclists are obsessive about reducing rotating mass, and these wheels seem to be seriously chunky. Is this actually a thing that could work?
Applying the brakes would wind a spring and bring the bike to a stop. Then applying force to the pedals or manually pulling a lever would release the spring for an assisted start.
Edit: Here's some mechanical regenerative braking projects:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yK7fyugbe6o
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DoaJK39Tl60
Electrical regen is probably cheaper and lighter.
Or did I miss the part where the inventor published a breakthrough technique that allows his system to break known laws of physics?