Originally Posted by
tomato coupe
It's clearly a very lossy coupler, so what's the point of it?
For cycling? No point. Magnetic gearboxes are cool and do have real advantages in certain applications but in variable transmissions and in highly varied output force environments like cycling the efficiency loss rises to untenable levels.
I mean, there's no wear components so in that regard it's a cool idea. However with the low forces of cycling, a traditional gearing system that's properly lubricated and maintained (like rohloff) can last almost indefinitely and has far higher efficiency.