This is borderline plane on a conveyor belt.

Surely it’s heavy, has significant losses, and is ever closer to full moped…?

https://ebiketips.road.cc/content/news/schaeffler-s-free-drive-is-a-chainless-electric-drive-system-for-e-bikes-3309?amp

I can see it being useful for e-assist recumbents and velomobiles which are already having to loop the chain through several cogs.

When it was done almost 10 years ago with the Mando Footloose I don’t think it worked that well.

Mando Footloose sounds an interesting Google…

Surely it’s heavy, has significant losses, and is ever closer to full moped…?

It’s never going to be as efficient as a well-maintained derailleur system, but it will be much simpler to operate and should be almost maintenance-free. It will also allow regenerative braking to partially recharge the battery, and I guess it would be easy to set it up as a plug-in hybrid. It might be good as a commuter bike for shortish trips – you just get on and pedal without worrying about gear shifting, battery will assist will hills. Cost will be the big consideration, obviously.

It’s an interesting concept but 250W isn’t really enough on it’s own.

It’s an interesting concept but 250W isn’t really enough on it’s own

I’m an averagely fit mountain biker and my ftp is 235 watts. Is that not enough for me to be able to cycle?

I can kinda see the point, but at what point do you give up and just call it a 15.5mph electric motorbike? There’s surely no need to pedal with that unless you need to go past its battery-only range unless they deliberately under-spec the BMS so it’s incapable of doing it.