We don’t often get to update you on the more madcap crowdfunded e-bike projects we’ve previously reported on – for the simple reason that most of them don’t go anywhere. It seems Beno’s hubless Reevo e-bike did at least get built – although given what we’ve seen, perhaps it shouldn’t have been.

Announced in 2020, the Reevo boasted hubless, spokeless wheels; a one-sided fork; and fingerprint locking/unlocking.

This was apparently a sufficiently alluring package that it managed to attract over £5m in crowdfunding.

However, while the last update on the Kickstarter page, in July 2023, claims that 1,888 bikes were delivered, the same post goes on to outline various supply chain problems. These included rising costs, significant delays and major quality issues when parts finally arrived.

It is therefore no enormous surprise to find that the bike’s website and social media channels are no longer accessible. Bad news for all those who backed the campaign and never got a bike.

That’s ordinarily where the story ends – except that Seth Alvo from Berm Peak recently managed to get hold of one the Reevos that did get delivered via eBay. He’s subsequently given us an excellent rundown of its (many) failings on his YouTube channel.

The big one is the obvious one: the reinvention of the wheel.

Hubless wheels are not unheard of, but they tend to be more trouble than they’re worth. There’s a reason why one bike that employed such a thing was called Lunartic.

“The entire premise of the Reevo hubless bicycle is that it lacks one of the most reliable moving parts ever made,” says Seth. “And in its place, they replaced it with an unserviceable, heavy, complicated and noisy hubless wheel.”

The resistance in those wheels is significant, it seems. Spun by hand, they barely manage a single revolution. It’s as if the brakes are rubbing.

“With great difficulty, I am pedalling it,” says Seth early on in the video. “Can you believe how loud it is?”

And then it gets louder still because after riding over a bridge on a cycle path, something, somewhere breaks. This results in a rhythmic thunking noise whenever the wheels are turning.

Seth points out you can’t really service the wheel because the company doesn’t exist any more and so he resolves to just continue riding. “Let’s keep discovering how bad it is.”

Another major failing is that no hub also means no disc brakes. This results in the dangerous alternative of cheap caliper brakes on a bike that weighs about 30kg. (Good job there’s constant resistance from the wheels really.)

Generous to a fault, Seth also highlights a few features he quite likes, chief of which is the ability to stow cargo inside the non-revolving part of the wheel.

He also draws attention to the lighting – including indicators and brake lights – and the fact that thanks to the single fork, you can remove the bike’s tyres without first removing the wheels.

There’s a USB port near the phone mounting point too – which makes sense.

Other elements are less than excellent. Seth lauds the appearance of the ‘invisible kickstand’ that slots into the frame, “but it’s a terrible kickstand," while the suspension seat post, “does almost nothing to make the ride better”.

Then – the piece de resistance – when he walks the bike along, he finds that the pedals turn and because they’re turning, they trigger the pedal assist…

Even better, he says that there is no way of shutting the bike off to prevent this from happening without removing the battery.

It seems a pretty significant design flaw to have a wheel that drives the pedals, given the pedals trigger the motor that drives the wheel. Later on, Seth gives the bike a push and lets go and watches as it pedals itself away.

Despite the pained accusations from some of the Kickstarter backers, Seth ultimately concludes that the Reevo wasn’t a scam, on the basis that a lot of (misdirected) effort went into making the bike and some were ultimately delivered.

“I don’t think they were trying to scam people,” he says. “I think they really thought that this was going to take off and be successful – even though it is the worst bicycle in the whole world.”