Every now and then, there’s an ad in a magazine worth following up. I saw an ad for these Capricorn Cyclo Works custom wheels and right away I could see these were not your every day custom motorcycle wheel, there’s so many of those nothing seems to stand out anymore, but these are different.
The wheel in the photo is called Involution and it looks like you just opened the back of a wind up clock or some other neat mechanical gizmo. The best part is that all of those gears turn when the wheel moves making for a rather interesting visual effect. On a practical level, it isn’t. But if you like interesting mechanical design, this is cool. They make a few other designs like the Interference and the Iris and videos on their site show them in action.
Again, not practical, but kinda neat.
coho says
Neat lookin’. Would be great in conjunction with a hubless rear wheel. As long as “Reducing Unsprung Weight and Increasing Flickability” isn’t your family motto.
I wonder if you have to lube them? (ScottOiler on the front wheel anyone?)
I bet they make a sound, too. That could be kinda cool (I actually like my BMW’s gear whine) if it wasn’t too loud.
Dodgy says
Hey, if they played around a bit more I bet they could make a wind up Harley…
The world’s first zero emission bike?
vinod says
I’ve seen that ad in magazines before and I’ve always wondered if it moved within the wheel. I’d love to see a video of that.
ElectricMotorcylces says
No Dodgy: Not the first zero emission bike. Far from it.
aaron says
I’m sure that vinod clicked the link and watched the video of all three wheels in motion after posting his commentary. I really wish there was a way to edit past comments!
I love this, it matches my mechanical watch fetish nicely – but for me to overlook the unsprung weight problem, I’ll have to see a perpetual calander and minute repeater module added to the base movement. 😉
LOL – maybe the japanese will put a variation of it into mass production – I’ve just come across this watch from seiko’s creador line – ever thought you’d see the day seiko put a $125,000 watch into production?
http://people.timezone.com/mdisher/seiko/0602/sonneriepr.htm