The above had popped up in another thread. Well, call me stupid, but they make no sense to me. The demonstration video clips offered, show only that a bicycle with one of these attached can in fact actually still move (about as useful as showing that a bike can move with baseball cards slapping against the spokes). The photos show only various large disks for the hubs - no exploded views, no examples of actual gear range obtained with either device, or how they might work. In fact, there is absolutely no technical data offered. These devices could weigh 20 pounds, and simply be cast iron multi-speed hubs. It is stated that one device is "infinitely adjustable, incrementally adjusts to exact output ratios" ~ what does that mean? Sounds like just shifting a hub gear. And, one prototype has been in development for 30 years now... and is (still) looking for investors.

There are derailleur driven auto-adjusting bikes like the "Autobike" and the "Landrider" which seem to make more sense than these systems - at least for someone who is too spastic to shift an indexed gear manually.

The only logical, advanced, hub gear I've ever seen which makes sense to my simple mind, at least, is the Rohloff "Speedhub" - a 14-spd internally geared hub transmission system. It has gears spaced 13% apart, covering the full range of a typical MTB system, can be shifted up or down, on the fly, while climbing or descending at speed and under full torque. It shifts with a single gripshifter. It weighs the equivalent of perhaps an entire XTR drive system who's hub, derailleurs, cables, and various parts would all be replaced with this simple mechanism. It also costs $1,000.

While I love the concept of a revolutionary new drive system, it is sad that two home-brewed gadgets like the ones linked above can't seem to offer anything substantial - only claims, dreams, and a lot of very suspicious wording, at best.

PLEASE, please, please if anyone knows anything at all about the above linked projects, or of any other similar concepts which they have actually seen effectively working- and doing so better than any tangible bike technologies currently operating, do clue me in.

Honestly, I love the fantasy of climbing over the Alps with a fully loaded touring bike which has truly infinitely variable gears to keep me and 50 pounds of attached gear, spinning effortlessly at a constant 80 rpms both up and down the mountain passes, but the technology seems to have either wizzed past me... or,... maybe it just ain't out there.

I am truly a dreamer... but also a skeptic.