New Idea for EV Bike

[John Bryan <jbryan@micron.net>]

Hello All,
	Last night I continued brainstorming an idea that first occurred to 
me about 2 years ago. Unfortunately, I'm at a loss to determine the details
of just exactly how to go about it. Here's the idea:

	A ZAP (or similar-type) bike equipped with a specially modified drive 
roller. The roller is a custom fit to an aggressively treaded tire, 90 deg. 
features in the tread like knobs and robust ridges would be best. The roller 
would deeply engage the tire when power is applied, but would never generate 
any actual 'tension' with the tire. All power would be transferred to the 
sides of the tire's vertical features. This system has tremendous advantages, 
if anyone wonders about them I'd be glad to elaborate.
	How best to make such a thing? I have an extra roller to use for the 
core, the finished unit would be a bit bigger than a std. roller which would 
give a slightly higher top speed. I started realizing that the drive roller's 
circumference would need to be a function of the repeat distance of the tread 
pattern. Basically, if you took a piece of clay and rolled in on the wheel 
until you got a smoothly repeating pattern with no overlaps or pinching, that 
would represent what you wanted to end up with. I suppose a mold could be 
made from this clay plug, but could there be a much easier way to do this 
that I've overlooked? I can also see real problems with getting the mold to 
release from the part, unless it had many sections. Also, any thoughts on 
which compounds might be best for molding the drive roller from? Most 
important of all, might I just be off my rocker with this whole idea?
	Computer aided machining of the part from aluminum would rule, but 
alas I'm at a shortage of equipment to pull that one off.

John Bryan