Beno startup unveils suspiciously cheap Reevo e-bike
With wheels without hubs.
Beno believes the spokes are a thing of the past and offers an e-bike with hubless wheels, a new powertrain, a 500Wh battery and a long list of gadgets. It looks really impressive, but there are doubts about the convenience and functionality of such a model, the 24-techno website writes.
According to New Atlas, the Reevo electric bike presented at Indigogo by the Beno startup, although it attracts attention, is in fact just an engineering curiosity. Wheels without hubs look cool, but that’s where their value ends, while the spokes have an important function in strengthening and stabilizing a lightweight wheel and preventing it from warping.
The company claims to have protested wheels with a load of up to 120 kg – but how they behave on rough roads at speed, especially without suspension, is anyone’s guess. Perhaps the video shows Reevo driving slowly for a reason.
The Reevo has a good range – about 60 km with a 500 W / h battery, but only one speed. Beno’s designers did a good job of masking all the bike systems so they don’t ruin the look. The lock on the wheel is hidden so that you cannot get to it with a bolt cutter, but it opens and closes through a fingerprint scanner. There are also matching sensors, GPS beacons and smartphone mounts.
Since the Reevo’s inner rim doesn’t actually move while the tire rotates around it, Beno’s designers were able to fit LED lighting into the front and rear wheel rims. They flash automatically when it gets dark outside.
With such a complex design and good technical characteristics, they ask for a bike on Indigogo suspiciously little – $ 2 thousand. Perhaps, because it will be produced in Malaysia. The company raised 200% of the required amount in the first 15 minutes.
Source: hubs.ua