The Kosmos e-bike’s Kickstarter page says itself that the high costs, complexity, and massive bulk of hubless wheels, “make it hard to offer these bikes at an affordable price.” It then goes on to reveal that, “The KOSMOS Hubless series solves all of these issues and more by being both lightweight AND affordable.” Well that’s that resolved to everyone’s complete satisfaction then. No further questions!
We’ve been in this area before, not too long ago, with the hopeless, hubless Reevo e-bike.
As Seth Alvo, the man who bought a second-hand Reevo, so pithily put it: “The entire premise of the Reevo hubless bicycle is that it lacks one of the most reliable moving parts ever made. And in its place, they replaced it with an unserviceable, heavy, complicated and noisy hubless wheel.”
And yet here comes the Kosmos Hubless F5, promising, “the bold future of bike riding,” and seeking to attract backers via Kickstarter.
“The front wheel is made with no spokes, or hubs, for a completely see-through design,” they say – quite the selling point, we’re sure you’ll agree.
The promotional video then claims this innovative design reduces the bike’s weight and air resistance without any explanation how that reduction in weight (to 22kg) is actually achieved, given a hubless wheel requires a bit more engineering than, you know, a normal wheel.
It also goes on to claim that the bike boasts a “reduced centre of gravity” (um, what?) that “increases the bike’s traction when you turn, making going around corners much easier.”
A full 43 seconds into the sales pitch, we are very much out, but at the time of writing 10 brave souls have together contributed almost £12,000 to the project.
But Kosmos aren’t done yet with the bold claims. Not having a hub apparently also “helps with sudden stops” and delivers “better, faster riding.” Explanations for these supposed attributes are not, alas, forthcoming.
The front wheel has a V-brake. At the more conventional rear wheel, where disc brakes are an option, they’ve gone with a disc brake.
Moving away from the wheels, there’s a mid-motor single-speed version, but also a hub motor model which gets a rather unusual five-speed gearbox at the cranks.
As you’d expect for a bike where they’re clearly going out of their way to do pretty much everything differently, the tyres are solid.
Oh, and it folds.
The front light comes as standard, but for some reason you have to pay extra for the rear one.
The standard price for the Kosmos Hubless F5 has been set at $3,500 but the first 50 bikes (good luck with that!) are being sold to Kickstarter backers for $1,500.
The Kosmos Hubless F5 Max model – which is the one with the gearbox – is priced at $3,900 or $1,750 for the early bird offer.
> Reevo: The hopeless, hubless e-bike that failed to bring about a "Reevolution"
