Bicycle belt drives

[MacGyver0076]

let me test one of those bikes, then watch the cogs on the belt rip off, LOL

[HfxCyclingCoalition]

Probably the worst idea i've seen in regards to biking in my life. HAHAHA!! Cute idea though.

[ryanmerck]

Excellent vid, what song is that btw?

[G4331]

Actually, I would love to try a belt drive bike but I live in a neighborhood that has used violence whenever they see someone there with new technology without an HOA discussion. A few years ago, my next door neighbor got his ass kicked by other neighbors when he pulled up in a Honda hybrid.

The windows were busted as well. That's the gated community life for you here at Pine Forest Village in Bluffton,SC. So I would be too scared of offending the neighbors to ride one. I'll take the chain.

[rulestein]

LoL, interest? Where can I read the full thing?

[electroum]

@G4331 Sounds like a horrendous place to live... what a bunch of nutjobs :(

[camtnkngsnk]

cleaner & quieter, would be great if adapted for a single swing arm electric assist hybrid biken, no need to break the read triangle.

[willemstockton]

belt drives will never be practical for bikes. Belt drives 'give and take' more than chains and are only good for constant torque and tension, like engines. A cycle, no matter how good your cadence is is never perfectly constant (because it's human powered..) On a graph force applied would be spikes and valleys instead of a smooth line. Each time you press down when you pedal you exert a force then let off. Belts absorb some of that force from stretching each pulse of energy.

[JerryinComo]

Actually this belt is basically a narrower version of the belt that drives a Harley and some other motorcycles. Harley belt is less than 7/8" wide. Harley is 100 + HP, I think a good cyclist is generating less than 5hp.

You may find bikes with this belt drive at a local bike shop. Check it out before you make final judgement.

For some more information go look at Gates Corp. polychain.

[RoyKnable]

Actually, your average casual cyclist puts out 0.1hp if they're lucky. If you can find someone who can generate 5 horsepower, he would make Lance Armstrong look like Pee Wee Herman on a tricycle.

[NoirMusic]

I'd say before putting down comments like this you should make sure you know what you are talking about. Certainly what you said applies to previous attempts at belt driven bikes. I don't think it applies to these...

[TheMountainrage]

That would depend on the design of the belt. Current chain driven systems have fiction points at every chain link, so how would the loss compare. It might end up that the performance is very similar to a chain with minimal maintenance. Perfect for a single speed commuter, even better if you are a winter cyclist.

[aampudia8]

i thought about belts for bikes a some years ago.. like 5, before getting to the university.. i hate when i see some ideas i've had getting real by other guys =(

[stereopanda]

lol well the idea itself has been around for a LONG time. but ditto

id be cool if you could do it with ANY bike...Trek has a bike for 09 thats comming out soon that is belt driven. either single speed or 8

[rulestein]

Sometimes that happens to me as well. Like other people said, the idea may have been around already. It is all about who markets the idea first.

[carltonreid]

CVTs such as Nu Vinci's are available for bikes but Spot and Orange are working with Shimano Alfine and Rohloff hubs.

[defenderofliberty]

I was looking at a continuously variable transmission (CVT) that some students at UNH had built for a snowmobile, and was thinking that perhaps a compact CVT could be built for a bicycle or trike that was belt driven.