Engineering points for opposing teeth orientation - forward grip on the back wheel for accelerating, backwards on the front wheel for breaking. I like it.

[–] rautapekoni@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Also grip for steering. Backwards facing teeth on the front wheel would just end up skidding a lot of the time and make the bike impossible to turn. Is there a video of this thing in action somewhere?

[–] gnu@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

There is indeed a video of this.

There's also a video of someone trying a similar setup with a dirt bike, though those guys didn't reverse the front teeth (did still steer ok, not sure how well it'd brake).

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

God this is so stupid. There's nothing in that video that a set of studded tires can't achieve while also outperforming it on both on and off ice.

[–] gnu@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 days ago

Yes, while they look interesting there are reasons why saw blade lookalike wheels aren't commonly used. I hate to think of how the weight of those dirt bike ones would affect the handling (probably not so much of a problem over smooth ice, but rougher terrain would be a challenge).