Lunartic: A Hubless Urban Bike
The bicycle has come a long way since the kernel of its invention in 1817. One of the most interesting innovations in cycling over the past few years has been the hubless, spokeless wheel and a particularly compelling new iteration of it comes from British designer Luke Douglas.
Lunartic is a compact urban bicycle that uses a combination of different wheel sizes, a toothed belt drive and a hubless rear wheel to harness the power of the gyroscopic effect for a faster, more efficient ride. The small front wheel offers the maximum space-saving benefits possible without folding, while the large rear wheel provides more contact with the road, offering the stability of a hybrid.
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Maneuverable and stylish, Lunartic presents a promising model for the next generation of urban bikes.
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Lunartic is one of the finalists in designboom and Seoul Design Foundation’s Seoul Cycle Design Competition, which received over 3000 submissions.
Maria Popova is the editor of Brain Pickings, a curated inventory of miscellaneous interestingness. She writes for Wired UK, GOOD Magazine, Design Observer and Huffington Post, and spends a shameful amount of time on Twitter.
