[hegz]

Rough terrain on bikes was already solved with suspension or larger tires I doubt they managed to create something that worked better than that.

[Retric]

Suspension sits between a wheel and the vehicle so the entire wheel is displaced over a bump which means it’s momentum exaggerates a shock.

Deforming the wheel means far less mass is moved and thus momentum. This is why we use air filled rubber tires in the first place, but they have real size limits. So, this could actually provide a smoother ride.

Probably not worth it for a bike, but someone with a broken bone for example can be extremely sensitive to shocks.

[lolc]

The Loopwheels page is explicit about the wheels having a rigid rim.

[Retric]

Yea, but the wheel is more than just the rims. Play around here http://www.wheelbuilder.com/wheel-weight-calculator.html. The Rim is generally a large fraction of total wheel weight, but both spokes and Hub's are important.

On a bike the total weight also includes the fork and parts of the suspension. Not sure about wheelchairs, but I suspect deforming the center of the wheel still easily cuts unsprung mass in half.

[tsomctl]

It's very important to reduce unsprung weight, which this does. Vehicle suspension is extremely complicated with a huge number of interrelated variables. It is always possible to make suspension work better, but normally at the price of being more complicated/more expensive. This is a clever idea that isn't that complicated.