Chainless Bike? Anyone Ridden One of These?

Yikes! Avoid, avoid, avoid.

The concept is kind of neat, but the combination of a gimmicky drive system combined with bottom-drawer components will yield a bike that will only stand up to the lightest use and be unserviceable if something in the drive system screws up.

If you just want to roll around on bike paths, it will probably work. For anything else, it's going to suck. You could get a pretty good used bike or an OK new one for what these things cost. At a minimum, $300+ should get you decent brakes and wheels. Both are lacking on this bike.

This product doesn't seem to offer any advantages over a bike with a chain drive (with chain guard) and an internally geared hub. There will be a lot more friction with this system, as well. A bevel-gear setup is not as mechanically efficient as a chain and cog system. On motorcycles, you only see shaft drives on cruisers for this reason.

How do you plan to use it? For anything more than tooling around the block, this bike isn't going to cut it. If that's all you're looking at it for, then you can get the same quality bike at 1/3rd the price at any full-line bike shop. But please don't buy at a department store - it's not any cheaper, and they don't provide proper setup or service.



Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
 
While backyard engineers and entrepreneurs around the world deny it, the standard chain drive on modern bikes is about as simple, flexible, and reliable as we're likely to get.

Chris
 
Interesting concept that has finally arrived for
bicycles. As to durablity, in time, I'm sure that
someone will get it right just as they did for
motorcycles years ago.
 
I think we should allow that innovation usually improves on the bugs of a design. I never thought I's see a Gilmer belt on a Harley. Honda even made a four-banger 750 with an automatic transmission.

This is the first application of the design. I remember when deraileurs first came out. They tossed chains right and left.

Ten years from now, the fifth rendition, probably in titanium or scandium, will be the hot seller.
 
Since that has two sets of bevel gears, expect to lose about 10% of your power to friction. Some people are willing to accept that in a motorcycle, but for a bicycle ... okay, maybe you only want to go for a leisurely cruise around the neighborhood and don't care how fast you go -- but do you want to spend 10% more effort in your cruising?
 
This isn't anything new either, shaft drive bicycles were around a hundred years ago. Chains proved more efficient then and they still are. That won't change in 10 years either.
 
Oh well, it looks good on paper. Looking for a mountain bike to do some light off roading, nothing too precarious. But definitely want reliability.

Thanks for all of the opinins, and especially thanks MikeGram, I'll be visiting a local bike shop this weekend. Can you suggest any solid brand names?
 
Never say never. It was once thought in this country that smooth-bore muskets were superior for soldiers as they were easier to reload when dirty. Then came Minie balls. That's innovation.

To be sure, I don't know what that innovation will be in the future, if I did I'd buy stock now! But daddy was an engineer, and engineers delete chains whenever they can. They stretch, they need constant lubrication, there must be some designed in slack and servicemen must learn their idiosyncracies by 'feel' as opposed to calibration.

And look at the chains. You probably wouldn't easily recognize a timing chain in a modern car; you might first guess that it's a chainsaw fitting.

Helical gears, preferably in a closed environment, are the desire. It is the challenge to get there, especially in a mountain bike, where this energy can be captured.

Your computer looks different than it did ten years ago, and the drive line of some bicycles will follow suit. However, there are manual and automatic transmissions now, and there certainly will be shafts and chains in the future.
 
Right on, Big Deeee, everything old is new again. Those "modern" split saddles that are supposed to "relieve pressure" are another one, I have illustrations from the 1890's that look almost identical.

A well-maintained (ie-clean) roller chain is remarkably efficient, and modern drivetrains are marvelously reliable. Still, one frequently sees people on multi-speed bikes laboring up hills in too-high a gear, or even pushing. "why don't you shift down?"
"Uh, it doesn't work right."
Usually, a two-minute adjustment on the cable tension puts everything right again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top