How do the 2-gear wheels work?
The MAGICWHEELS 2-gear manual wheels is completely mechanical; there are no motors or batteries. They have a built-in mechanical gear system, like a bicycle, except that the teeth of the gear are on the inside. The unique gear system is called a hypocycloidal drive. This design permits the gears to be placed inside the hub and around the axle, and provides the automatic hill-holder function that can be overridden by pulling back on the handrim. When in low gear, for each time the handrim goes around twice, the wheel goes around once. This 2:1 ratio enables you to use half the effort for both climbing and braking. On flat surfaces, you simply click out of gear and return to standard 1:1 operation. After a little practice, gear selection becomes intuitive and automatic.
