Fancy bearings.
The wheels are apparently really really loud when they are mounted like this. You just can make good enough ball bearings of this size at any reasonable cost and weight
Ok, maybe with a magnetic linear drive?
You could also cover the spokes or use a spokeless single wall design. I do think a design like this would need to be cleaned a lot.
Nah; you just have to jam the stick through the tire itself so it gets caught at the part that is spinning the wheel.
Needs blue or orange neon lights
The complexity of this design cannot be outspoken.
Is there any regime where this is more efficient than spokes? I'd imagine that at high speed there's an aerodynamic advantage (possibly similar to a track/TT disk wheel?), but I can't imagine the bearings being better than current bikes. But bearing loss might (???) just scale linear with speed, so probably a win from aero in the end. But this isn't counting weight, which I imagine is worse (but doesn't matter much at high speed on flat ground).
I don't think this will work on the long run.
First, the hold on the rim must be very tight and precise or the wheel will wobble like mad.
Second, such a tight hold will be very sensitive to any kind of dirt, so it has to be sealed.
Any seal tight enough to keep extremely small dirt out will cause loads of friction.
Tight seals in general is not an option, they exist en masse with e.g. hydraulic cylinders. But for them, the friction is basically a non-issue in comparison to the overall power budget. But I cannot imagine an even halfway free wheeling wheel that will not break down after getting in contact with a bit of sand.
