I recently saw Big Hero 6 in theatres.

 

One of the main heroes, Go Go Tomago, is working on a faster bicycle by using wheels suspended electromagnetically.

 

Would such technology work in real life? I've seen it done before, but only in works of fiction.

if your magnetic bearings are strong enough to suspend the wheel around the axle, then yes to a degree.

however, the biggest speed killer for a bike is the drag coefficient.

the question is whether or not you can keep down your rotational mass.

if your magnetic bearings are strong enough to suspend the wheel around the axle, then yes to a degree.

however, the biggest speed killer for a bike is the drag coefficient.

the question is whether or not you can keep down your rotational mass.

 

How would they keep down the rotational mass?

 

What could be done to eliminate the drag coefficient?

Unsure why even bother with wheels if you are going to magnetically levitate the bike.

 

Sounds like the Mag levitating trains that already ride on a magnetic field.

 

Two types of mag lev trains exist. A kind that rides on a cushion of the same polarity (push), and one that is lifted upwards by opposite polarities (pull).

 

By adjusting magnetic angles they can arrive at incredible speeds.

Edited November 21, 201411 yr by barfbag

Unsure why even bother with wheels if you are going to magnetically levitate the bike.

 

Sounds like the Mag levitating trains that already ride on a magnetic field.

 

Two types of mag lev trains exist. A kind that rides on a cushion of the same polarity (push), and one that is lifted upwards by opposite polarities (pull).

 

By adjusting magnetic angles they can arrive at incredible speeds.

 

Because for civilian vehicles magnetic levitation would need a corresponding field generated by a maglev road, but not if the wheels were magnetically suspended around the axles. This would reduce the problem of axel damage by hazards, a smoother ride, and faster acceleration.

 

How would they keep down the rotational mass?

 

What could be done to eliminate the drag coefficient?

you will want as much of the working mass as you can get on the axle instead of the wheel. also tires rule this kingdom so you will want razor thin tires with a high thread count.

drag can be reduced by smoothing sharp edges and replacing raised surfaces with flush mounting. the majority of drag comes from the rider so a smooth contoured shell with a small cross section is your best bet.

So the wheels would have to be thinner and the axel thicker?

yup.

you want the heavy stuff not rotating.

yup.

you want the heavy stuff not rotating.

 

By which I assume you mean heavy axles instead of rotating ones.

you want as much mass of your bearings to not be moving as possible.

the over all weight needs to be as low as possible for the bike.

Here's an example of what I was thinking of, but more for a car (I couldn't get a picture of Go Go's bike from Big Hero 6).

 

so you want a car like that?

so you want a car like that?

 

It would be cool, and maybe more within our reach than trying to build thousands of maglev roads across the world.

On 11/21/2014 at 1:12 AM, TransformerRobot said:

So the wheels would have to be thinner and the axel thicker?

how would you apply this to actual wheels though ?

 

We have been patiently waiting 6 years for that very question.

On 11/21/2014 at 12:29 AM, barfbag said:

Unsure why even bother with wheels if you are going to magnetically levitate the bike.

Six years on this may be a rhetorical question but...

Have you ever tried to steer a hovercraft?
There's a reason why they use this sort of thing for trains, and the reason is rails.

Magnetic bearings are useful at high speeds and when you want to ensure that grease  doesn't get anywhere you don't want it.

Neither criterion applies to bikes.

The other reason to add absurd bearings to a bike would be so you could add an absurd fee to the price tag.

 

 

hello everyone, My friend and I made a possible design for such and idea to take place. We are doing it as an engineering teenage (15-16yo) porject, which we plan on scaling mass-production.