This Tesla Model B Concept e-bike features an independently turning front wheel and suspension spokes (2024)

Alex Bowden

Alex has been editor of ebiketips since 2021. He previously contributed news, reviews and more to road.cc and has also had a parallel (largely lapsed) career writing about cricket for various publications.

Why isnt Telsa suing this guy into extreme poverty? As far as I can tell, he's using their Brand without permission, now the internet is littered with statements saying its a Tesla - its not.

This guy is a self-promoting attention whor* and the bike sites are enabling him.

The technology to steer by wire (with balancing) for two wheeled vehicles has been around for a few years now with Honda demonstrating it on a motorcycle in 2017https://youtu.be/VH60-R8MOKo and BMW has also done a lot of work on autonomous motorcycles https://youtu.be/4JlYE6nSNJI so it’s not a big stretch to believe this kind of technology may someday in the not too distance future make it to an e-bike.

Suspension in the construction of a bike wheel? Why has no-one thought of this before?

Oh.

I can't help butthink that the designer doesn't understand how a bicycle works. If you look at the wheel marks made by a bike going in a nominally straigt line, they wander - which is how you adjust your balance to stay upright. Push/turn the bars to the right - you go left, because the bike moves to the right, your weightis to the left, and round you go - to the left. Except when you're going slowly, when it's all a bit different, as you steer the bike back under you.

Of course, if they just invented something they could call a steerer and a headset they could attachthe handle bars directly to the front axle -that might work. You could even ride something like that with no hands, or one hand, without the device sticking you into the ditch

always happy to see exploration in design - i teach spatial designat university - but i would be asking some serious questions if this was a student project..it feels, as others have noted, lacking any critical understanding of how and why things operate in certain ways. It feels like soemone getting attention by being different rather than thinking thoroughly in a different way

It's great that people try new things. ButI find it strange that they keep the bits that are ripe for change, like the conventional'Rover safety bicycle' rider position, and throw out the stuff that "just works". I'm also highly skeptical that the bike will be able to steer itself out of trouble inspite of the rider, since much of the steering is to do with shifting the rider's weight rather that simply turning the steering as if it were a car.

It's great that people try new things. ButI find it strange that they keep the bits that are ripe for change, like the conventional'Rover safety bicycle' rider position, and throw out the stuff that "just works". I'm also highly skeptical that the bike will be able to steer itself out of trouble inspite of the rider, since much of the steering is to do with shifting the rider's weight rather that simply turning the steering as if it were a car.

I enjoyed the Tesla diagram showing what way the wheels turn on a cycle. Was never sure before, this is quite revolutionary.

my first though was the amazing powqer consumption - not by the motors but the radar and IA. And Tesla AI - so will it not recognise and crash into other cyclists. If they can (as they do with cars) remotely disable it if you don't pay for software updates & ongoing features this is over engineering at it's finest. The only impressive thing here is the fake shadow under the CGI bike.

Why on earth would you take something mechanically beautifully simple and efficientand make it a hideous mess of software, sensors and electronics that will, over time, get buggy, and fail? I've always thought there was a good reason that eBikes are bikes + electric boost - if the electric boost runs out, it's still a fully funcitonal bike. This looks like a crazy idea!And I'm with Kendalred, why on earth would you make the steering require power?

So if I get this right, the forks are powered - presumably by the same battery that powers everything else? So if the battery runs out of juice, so does the steering? Seems safe.

So if I get this right, the forks are powered - presumably by the same battery that powers everything else? So if the battery runs out of jiuce, so does the steering? Seems safe.