HydroWorld Outlook

Okay, then, it's settled. The Road Bike set will be out in a few weeks, and then hopefully we'll get hands-on with these new parts to see for ourselves how they will all connect. Physical, in-person validation always trumps eyeballing photos and making predictions, right?

That's what I thought. It's fine, I'll make do. Agreed. Maybe this particular combination works better with one of the older 56-tooth turntables instead, since 28 is half of 56? That would constitute or 1:2 or 2:1 ratio, depending on which gear is the input or output. Can we test that?

I was suspicious about this, but I couldn't confirm with eyeballs alone. That being said, if you are correct, then that would solve the mounting problem (and my flywheel problem) because now the banana gear can directly drive the larger bike wheel formed by the curved macaroni segments. Hopefully this is true, but I guess we won't be able to physically confirm this in-person until reviews start populating. However, are you sure you're calculating that right? Because if the links are 11L each then that wheel is larger than you think and mounting them to the banana-built annula gears won't be all that simple.

Unfortunately, Technic Bricks won't be strong enough, especially not for a massive, potentially two-meter-long hydroaerospacecraft (watercraft + aircraft + spacecraft/spaceplane hybrid vehicle) model like the one I'm building that will need to be lifted off the ground (by a robust Technic-built carry handle at the vehicle's center of gravity (COG)). They'd be fine for a ground vehicle always supported by—and operating on—a flat surface, but for a larger, hybrid hydroaerospace vehicle like this capable of operating in multiple environments (land, sea, air, space), I need maximum structural integrity wherever I can afford it or I risk this model breaking apart the minute I try lifting it off the ground. Honestly, it is best that I upgrade and reinforce the whole airframe with Metal Technic Parts next year once I have the money. MTP offers these huge 1-meter-long metal Technic beams that I desperately need, but of course they're a whopping US$42 apiece and I would need at least eight of them, so in the meantime I'll have to make do with the ABS plastic parts I've got. For sure. I will be considering this new ratcheting freewheel part as well, perhaps for the next model I work on after the hydroaeroshuttlecraft I mentioned above. In fact, I might use this part in an upgraded version of my model, perhaps for the deployable crane arm's rescue winch in the model's underbelly, or a similar alternative function. Can we test this spacing now, perhaps? Do you have this worm gear? Even if we can't, no worries—we can wait for the new 64-tooth gear piece to enter circulation and then verify once reviews for the 11380 Road Bike start going live. I sure hope New Elementary plans to cover all these new pieces.

Perhaps I might not have worded that so well. The reason I was worried about the lack of whole-stud spacing for the compatible gear combinations was because my design requires two gears to be mounted in a straight line along the same beam. In other words, the 64-tooth gear would have to be mounted on axle rotating through a pin hole on the same beam as the other gear, which would've been an 8-tooth gear, but now I know that combination won't work. So, I'd have to use a 16-tooth gear instead, based on the picture you showed, and then transfer the output of that geartrain to another to complete the ratio. Unfortunately, I can't get around this with a half-bush. That is fine, and I can deal with that. It's just very inconvenient for my design. That's all. I'm building a very large futuristic, amphibious spaceplane that will use a combination of hydropneumatics, flywheels, and electric LEGO motors for propulsion. That is why I was previously hyped up about the bicycle wheels because I need a way to build proper, efficient flywheels that are larger than the current banana gear circles and cheaper than the Hailfire Droid Wheels. I am currently planning to use a special LEGO Technic hybrid, compound custom steel ball-bearing design—combining the larger custom steel ball bearing design you created (for your TC28 Metal Lathe) with the smaller ball bearing design that Akiyuki Brick Channel created—to support the large contra-rotating lift-fan proprotor blades, which will be large 20 x 56 wing plate pieces (the ones used in the large, pre-2022 LEGO City Passenger Plane sets) Once combined, I have theorized and calculated that, if my plan works, both of your bearings will yield a gearless 3:1 ratio (meaning that the output proprotor speed will be thrice the torque and a third the input spindle shaft speed). However, to run and spin the flywheels that will create the inertia needed to spin these blades, I will probably need a smaller, separate geartrain connected to the bearing spindle shaft input to gear-down the output speed of the flywheels since they will be so large, because I don't trust that the tripled torque from the ball bearings alone will be enough for the proprotor blades to turn. These two giant proprotors will be essentially approaching, if—not outright exceeding—at least one meter in diameter each once construction is completed, so I have to err on the side of caution and estimate high on how much torque will be needed to drive them. Therefore, I will most likely just use the combination suggested here and mesh a 64-tooth spur gear—once it comes out—with one of my existing 16-tooth gears to create a 4:1 reduction ratio, and then I will just have to be prepared to implement additional gear reductions beyond that if the flywheel systems still struggle, but hopefully it won't with my proposed measures in place.

Okay, thanks for the explanation. So based on this, the 16-tooth gear is the only known Technic gear that can mesh with the 64-tooth gear in a perfect straight line because its the only one with a spacing that is a whole number (other than the 64-tooth gear's ability to mesh with itself 8 units apart, which is a basically useless combination except for transmitting rotation over longer distances since more gears just add friction). That's really unfortunate, but I agree that you are most likely correct—it is fully logical to assume these calculations are accurate, and that the stand-in 64-tooth gear either nearly or perfectly matches the diameter of the final piece. Therefore, I suppose I'll just have to use special pieces to space out the 64-tooth and 8-tooth gears properly within my construction. Agreed! But hey, who knows, maybe we'll get that in one of next year's sets as a 50th anniversary gift, if we're lucky. Didn't think of it that way, but that's one possibility. I was actually thinking these gears would work well for aviation cyclorotors or perhaps submerged Voith Schneider propellers, since their blades could swivel in the gear's off-center pin holes for adjustment.

Oh, I thought the 64-tooth gear would have been able to parallel-mesh with an 8-tooth gear positioned 5 units away, but I suppose that is not the case? That being said, this gear you've used is a 3D-printed stand-in with just a single axle hole, whereas the official new piece has three pin holes radiating on four built-in beams from the central axle hole (in a plus (+) shape, just like the largest Spike Prime wheel piece) out to the 64-toothed ring that forms this gear's circumference. Is there any chance the new piece could be slightly wider than this? This detail probably won't make much of a difference regardless because all LEGO Technic spur gears in the original spur gear family (with the obvious exceptions of the 12-, 16-, and 20-tooth versions), which all have tooth counts that are factors of 8 (8, 24, 40) mesh with one another in a straight line. This was also the case for the now-retired first version of the LEGO Technic turntable, which had 56 teeth and meshed perfectly inline with an 8-tooth gear, which is why I initially thought an 8-tooth gear might be able to mesh with this new 64-tooth gear just one extra unit away from where it would have previously meshed with a 56-tooth turntable. That being said, it does also make sense how this new 64-tooth gear would mesh perfectly with a 16-tooth gear for a 1:4 or 4:1 ratio because 16 is one quarter of 64, but I am slightly confused as to why an 8-tooth gear must be offset to mesh with this new gear. If this is true, that means the actual usefulness of this new part may be a lot less than I initially thought, as most applications I was planning to use it for required 64-tooth and 8-tooth gears to operate inline. Unfortunately, that's not possible if the above displayed combinations with the 3D-printed stand-in spur gear are accurate to the newer official 64-tooth spur gear piece. But still, I am curious if the tolerances in this 3D-printed gear might be producing the more awkward results of gears not meshing, because since all of the original spur gears have tooth counts that are factors of 8, I feel like they should all mesh perfectly when positioned in parallel (aside from the 12-, 16-, and 20-tooth spur gears). I know I am probably wrong but I was just curious.

Interesting. Given that the setup is shown here is the most likely principle used for this bicycle's rear wheel, and given that the core is bright green like this, I am starting to wonder if this freewheel mechanism might actually consist of two separate parts, and this bright green core inserts into the silver toothed shell mold. Perhaps this could be the case? They could also be integrated into a single piece as suggested here, but if they're separate elements then that would magnify the utility of this new part, or set of parts. The green core would be a relatively tiny piece by itself, but this is an 18+ set after all, so it wouldn't surprise me.

So they are bigger than the Hailfire Droid Wheels! Awesome! Yes, that is also true. However, it's definitely a good part for making sure certain components can only spin in one direction, without having to build and rely on a custom ratchet. That opens the door to many new mechanisms that were not possible before.

The second part I mentioned—41mm wheel (part 68327)—has a central axle hole as well as six pin holes around it, so that piece would fit the criteria, but modifications at the back of the bicycle would be required in order to make space for since it is slightly larger and significantly thicker than the Wedge Belt Wheel elements. Good point.

Got it. Thanks for providing the cutaway view of the wedge belt wheel—that helps a lot. In theory, we could replace or reinforce these with 60208 or 68327 wheel pieces (which are both have 7 pin holes and are much thicker/stronger) to reinforce these connections at the central hub where all the spokes meet, but these pieces are slightly larger than the wedge belt wheels, and thus, take up more space at the center of the wheel. Therefore, extensive modifications may be required in this area to make up the difference.

Okay. A 20-tooth freewheel clutch is still solid, though perhaps less useful than I originally envisioned in my previous post. Yikes! That wouldn't be good. In that case, I might have to wait for someone else to be the guinea pig and test this theory before I buy these parts. Any volunteers? Maybe the Brick Experiment, Brick Technology, or Dr. Engine channels on YouTube will do it. I'm building a huge model, so I have a lot parts under tension on the high-speed rotating components of it, and I'm not willing to pour more money into an upgraded flywheel only to seriously risk the hub of that wheel failing catastrophically under centrifugal stress. Perhaps I should think twice about these potential consequences before implementing the ideas I proposed in my previous posts then. What do you mean by this?

All right! I didn't see that coming! Oh yes—this will be such a useful piece! The introduction of this new part would mean the days of building or 3D-modeling huge, custom freewheeling mechanisms are now mostly over—imagine how much more efficient this part will be compared to mechanisms of the past.

Thanks for this picture—it's much easier for us to see the new parts now. LEGO's official website now also displays the 11380 Road Bike set. On the official LEGO site, I found another picture of the new wheel pieces. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble attaching the image to this post so I'll have to describe it instead: In that photo it is clear that the 12 new macaroni pieces which will form each of the bicycle's two wheels (meaning this new Road Bike set will contain 24 of these in total) will have two axle holes on either side that they use to connect—not just one, along with a pair of narrow grooves along their curved top to accommodate the single rubber tire that slips on around them, which of course are each one piece (and probably will be expensive). The good news is that these macaroni pieces appear almost as if they will make excellent curved exhausts for car or motorcycle engines—or streamlined aircraft intakes—when mounted individually, so that already gives us some hints as to future applications of this part aside from using them as part of a wheel. The bad news is that they also have half-deep pin holes on their inner curves, which limits their potential to be mounted to a central rotating hub outside the context of bicycle wheels, but half-thick liftarm beams can be used instead of the spoke elements, at least, to mitigate this design drawback. Regardless, these parts would still make potentially good shrouds for larger aircraft propellers, somewhat good rim-driven thrusters for larger watercraft models, and certainly excellent flywheels for large pneumatic engines. That said, I am very curious as to what the actual final diameter of these wheels are, though, since it's very hard to tell or calculate from the pictures alone—they may be slightly smaller or larger than the old rare Hailfire Droid Wheels, but we won't know for sure until someone buys the set and reports their measurements. However, from the looks of it, and assuming the new spoke link elements are 11L each as we suspected (which seems very highly likely), I'm guesstimating that they're probably somewhere roughly between 27L and 29L in diameter, perhaps about 31L with the tires on them. In other words, these finished wheels probably about as wide in diameter as one 99013 helicopter rotor blade piece is long. If I'm correct, then these new wheels are, in fact, larger than the old Hailfire Droid Wheels as was previously speculated, which would be fantastic news. Furthermore, it appears that the new 64-Tooth Technic Gear will have a whopping 12 pin holes on it along with a central axle hole. Pin holes offer connection possibilities, which is great—I could connect 3x11 or 5x11 panels to these to build fluid mixers, watercraft paddlewheels, or aircraft cyclorotors. However, these are not all that great for offset rotation applications that require us to offset the driveshaft, meaning we'd have to use other connector pieces to accomplish that effect, making the rotating gear slightly heavier. The only reason why I mentioned this is because the 40-tooth spur gear had an advantage by possessing off-center axle holes as well as pin holes, along with the 60-tooth spur gear we would've gotten before it was canceled, so the fact that this 64-tooth gear only has a single axle hole in its center—despite its larger size—is a bit of a letdown and missed opportunity for LEGO. Nonetheless, it's a good piece that I'm looking forward to using.

They are likely 11L spokes based on what we're seeing, and I agree that they could be similar, in principle, to the previous 16L link elements. However, I do believe that the actual spokes themselves are too narrow in diameter to be axles—they are likely specialized bar elements instead. That would be great! A 2L pin that can lock itself in place—at least at one end—would have countless applications outside of this new road bike set. Yes, that's what I said initially—there's no way in the world those giant rims are one-piece molds for that size. They most likely connect together like the circular macaroni parts, with pins and axles to reinforce their connections, to form that final circular wheel shape. The big black tires—which we know must be a single large rubber (or less likely, plastic) mold for design reasons—then slip around those completed rim assemblies. That's the only conclusion that really makes sense for a large official LEGO bicycle model of this size.