SBARRO

Orbital Wheel Prototype – 1989

Reinventing the wheel

Franco Sbarro is well known for his unorthodox automobiles, but he has always had a fondness for the bikes of his birthplace in southern Italy. In 1989, he turned his childhood dreams into reality by designing one of the most original bikes ever built.

"Empty" Hub

The wheel is by definition a band revolving about an axis. The center of such a wheel is normally occupied by several elements hub, brake and suspension – which all add up to a considerable amount of unsprung weight. Following themes already envisioned by such well-known designers as Lepoix and Collani, Sbarro attempted to go further than mere sketches on paper in proving that his "empty wheel" was truly functional.

Hollow Hub Center

A wheel must revolve about an axis, but Sbarro changed the rules by employing a hollow hub of so great a diameter that it formed the inner edge of a gigantic (and phenomenally costly) roller bearing whose outer edge was tl1e wheel rim. The brake disk (of similar diameter) is fixed to this "peripheral axis." The second – and no less difficult – problem consists of linking this axis to the chassis and making it steer. After a number of attempts, Sbarro devised an oscillating arm which ended in a horizontal disk on which the wheel swiveled as a secondary, computer-controlled system varied the castor angle of the wheel relative to the bike's speed. A complex innovation, to be sure, but one that may reap hefty dividends some day.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: Several options available

Suspension: single (front);

Brakes: large diameter disk (from and rear)

Wheels: "peripheral axis"

Sbarro 's revolutionary concept of two-wheeler design creates its own striking aesthetics.