Are chainless eBikes the future??

I came across an interesting video on the CYCLINGABOUT channel on YouTube called "Are Chainless Digital Drive Bicycles The Future of Cycling?"

The video from Alee Denham explores the concept of completely removing the chain from a bicycle and instead using the pedals to turn a generator and then to power the drive hub with just wires instead of a chain or belt.

While it doesn't seem to make much sense for an ordinary bicycle, it seems to have potential for eBikes as they will have a battery and motor already.

Most eBikes at present are pretty simple in that they have a battery which supplies power to a motor to assist the cyclist as required. Once the battery is discharged then that's it, the cyclist has to rely on their own pedal power to move.

With this new concept of using the pedals to generate power, the battery can be recharged to some degree and more power can be recovered from 'regenerative braking' which will use the electrical resistance of the drive hub generating power to help slow the eBike down.

I suspect the extra complexity may mean  that it may by used on some of the high end eBikes first but it would be interesting to see if it will become popular.

 The video below has clocked up an amazing 3-million views since it was released a month ago so there is obviously huge interest in this technology.