[hawkinspeter]

Just seen a “spring-powered wheel” on Hacker News and it damn near broke my bullshit detector.

https://www.superwheelsystem.com/

Apparently, it’s powered by weight (using a patented weight(mass) to energy conversion) though I can’t find the patent.

Topic

[giff77]

If successful you may have a

If successful you may have a market in Holland.  
https://youtu.be/VMinwf-kRlA

[Mungecrundle]

Should be fine as long as you
Should be fine as long as you always turn left.

[andystow]

Mungecrundle wrote:

Mungecrundle wrote:

How else do you think the Earth keeps spinning?

If we all get these wheels, how much will the Earth slow down? Could it get stopped, and there would be a hellish hot side and frozen wasteland side, with only tiny inhabitable zones at the borders? Would the civilization that eventually re-forms learn from our mistakes and not create cars? Would they still be dumb enough to think this spring wheel thing would work?

[Captain Badger]

Steve K wrote:

Steve K wrote:

Captain Badger wrote:

Steve K wrote:

….

It it’s not, it bloody well should be.

£1 says you can’t use it in a meeting on Monday with no one sniggering

Challenge accepted.

Brilliant, we expect a full report…

[hawkinspeter]

Captain Badger wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

The Indiegogo campaign is no longer open **cough** fraud **cough**, and they appear to be out-of-stock for pre-orders.

This appears to be the actual patent details: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2019081664

Fraud?? How dare you? these are honourable people just trying to make a difference! Retract, or I shall demand satisfaction!

I must have inadvertently hit the keyboard whilst coughing – I have literally no evidence that there was any intention to defraud Indiegogo punters with a product that doesn’t work as promised.

[Steve K]

Captain Badger wrote:

Captain Badger wrote:

Steve K wrote:

….

It it’s not, it bloody well should be.

£1 says you can’t use it in a meeting on Monday with no one sniggering

Challenge accepted.

[Mungecrundle]

How else do you think the
How else do you think the Earth keeps spinning?

[Nick T]

I’ve got a similar concept I

I’ve got a similar concept I’m currently working on, you know headwinds are a bastard right? Well it’s a sort of hot air dryer thing you strap to your bars, pushing the air away from you creating a slipstream. It’s also extremely hot, so there’s less air pressure

[Captain Badger]

Steve K wrote:

….

It it’s not, it bloody well should be.

£1 says you can’t use it in a meeting on Monday with no one sniggering

[Captain Badger]

hawkinspeter wrote:

The Indiegogo campaign is no longer open **cough** fraud **cough**, and they appear to be out-of-stock for pre-orders.

This appears to be the actual patent details: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2019081664

Fraud?? How dare you? these are honourable people just trying to make a difference! Retract, or I shall demand satisfaction!

[Steve K]

dave atkinson wrote:

“hingedly” is surely not an actual word

It it’s not, it bloody well should be.

[quiff]

I don’t do physics. I had no

I don’t do physics. I had no idea that all this time I’ve been cycling, I’ve been “pushing the ground backwards”. 

[Kapelmuur]

I had wondered what had

I had wondered what had happened to that Carrera TdF I sold on eBay.

[Sriracha]

My rats (that’s like a
My rats (that’s like a squirrel, minus the bush on the tail) used to have one of those perpetual motion wheels. You could tell they were perpetual motion because anytime the rats were in the wheel it never stopped turning. Wore the poor buggers out trying to keep up it did, and now they are dead. So if you do get one of these bikes be sure to take care.

[Sriracha]

Quote:

using a patented weight(mass) to energy conversion

Hmmm, mass to energy conversion, eh? Ok, that exists: E=mc^2, so a little goes a long way. Prior art might stymie the patent application however.

But I believe “snake oil” has yet to be patented. Unfortunately not for want of trying.

[Author]

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