It seems a classroom full of super-nerds (an endearing term btw) at the Yale Mechanical Engineering School created a proof of concept for the popular conceptual “spokeless wheel.”  The complete bike is F-ugly (bad cross between a Softride and Trek Y come to mind), but who cares really.  They made this thing actually work – belt drive and all.

The point of me sharing this project isn’t to marvel at stunning lines or an obsessive attention to detail. It’s clearly a prototype, and if you’ve ever worked on one, you know aesthetics are quickly thrown out the window in favor of structural integrity.  What’s interesting is that it can be done, and from the looks of it, relatively simply.

A few nice process shots were included in the Reddit posting.

Would look nice with a basket on front, no?

Via Core77