Hi All,
I just saw on the Israeli TV news an awesome development of a wheel with suspension embedded in it (instead of spokes) by an Israeli start-up company.
It is mainly produced for wheelchairs, but they presented an implementation for MTB of this patent as well: http://www.softwheel.co.il/#!fluent/czgx
May be something that will revolutionize our unicycle sport as well in the future 
Cheers,
Shay
That looks like a cool device. Since this is an Israeli company and you’re a local guy, you might want to contact them to see if you can somehow get one with a unicycle axle in it that you could test. Let them know that this is the holy grail of unicycle suspension, a problem the community has been discussing for some time. You may get lucky.
Looks interesting. I wonder how they handle the side loading?
Does it come in a 36 inch variety and can we retro fit a schlumph hub?
There’s a similar wheel being made for folding bikes, I think it’s really expensive though…
It looks a lot like the mockup from this 2004 thread. There was a post in 2012 about the Energy Return Wheel and I think a link was in one of the facebook groups recently. That looks like an interesting idea and they’re taking orders now. I’m not sure if the profile is too narrow for muni but it doesn’t look like my preferred wheel size (24") will be available anyway.
Very cool wheel. Someday it will work with a unicycle.
I’m really intrigued by this device/invention but I just watched the video and it looks as though the front wheel (you know, the one that most resembles a uni, if you replace the handlebars with a seat and remove all that extraneous stuff) comes in contact with the frame. For now - I’m happy to be cautiously optimistic that these good folk will figure out how to support 95+ kilos on one wheel with those small shock absorbers- without the surprise pothole “frame brake” … OMG UPG … Blah, blah, blah 
I agree with you - it worth at least to try…
Hopefully I will contact them today and see what I can do 
It looks a bit heavy.
Is it me or does the rear wheel wobble, most noticeable around 0:50 in that video?
Also, lateral forces are taken up by the three T-junctions near the hub. I don’t see how this is strong enough on a unicycle, for anything more than just riding. Spokes that go from the rim to both ends of the axle, like in a regular spoked wheel, should be much better at coping with sideways load.
Update: I had a meeting today with the guys from SoftWheel and I can say that in general they were very open minded and curious about the different fields of unicycling and about the possibility to use the suspension wheel in a unicycle.
It is of course way to soon to tell if there would be any progress made for such implementation, but I hope for the best 
Cheers 
The fact they even had the conversation is always a good sign 
I asked them both questions. They emailed me back saying: At the moment we are unable to supply Loopwheels for unicycles because the hubs are not compatible.
We may develop a wheel in the future but with each new wheel there is a lot of time and develop needed just to produce a prototype.
If you haven’t already done so please sign up to our mailings list and maybe one day it might become a reality!
I also e-mailed them when they first started up and got a similar reply. I suspect it ought to be possible to adapt the basic design onto a different hub through the use of custom flanges, and might look into that more seriously when they come out with a bigger wheel (and I have a bit more disposable income).
I looked again at the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1smviwN02o. There is an appreciable wobble in both wheels, best seen in the rear wheel around 0:50. I would be wary about lateral stability indeed.
Did they originally call it an “energy return wheel”? That might be following the first principle of advertising: identifying the biggest deficiency of the product and calling it loudly as a positive.
There is much more efficient propulsion on a bike when the drive chain is as rigid as possible. Hence the big deal over climbing with suspension on MTBs. I think a squishy wheel on a unicycle would absorb a lot of your cycling effort. That would increase the work needed to ride. Could still be good for downhill though, maybe with a Schlumpf hub?
maybe form a partnership with Kris Holm and Unicycle.com and whoever else wants in on this incredible idea!
I’m certainly more than happy to talk to Kris or Roger about the idea, but suspect we need to find out first whether it’s feasible to use one on a uni. Which is waiting on a bigger wheel, as I don’t really see the point in having it in a 20" wheel for uni use.
At first I was like… huh? at that point in the video the detail is too small to see any wobbl… holy crap! That’s a lot of wobble! 