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Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

ikea.com

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Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#13

Post by legodt »

peterwwillis wrote: post #11

It's two gear, so it's not great for inclines, and the belt and frame are less durable. I'm not sure it's worth the money once you learn bicycle maintenance (but you could say that about a lot of IKEA furniture and woodworking/metalworking)

If the belt is like standard belt drives (I need to look further into this, not sure if Ikea cheaped out or not), it should actually stand up to time better than a chain would. Belts are simply carbon cord embedded in a molded casing of nylon and polyurethane, and, more importantly, do not have any moving parts or linkages. It's just a belt! So you don't have to worry about the metal pitting over time or road salt settling in and destroying your drivetrain like you would with a traditional metal chain. This is more important to the European market where bicycle riders my not have cars, but owning a bike that you aren't afraid of taking out in the rain is another benefit of the belt.

My biggest concern though is that like all parts, the belt will fail eventually. A quick look online shows that new belts cost around $250, over half of the retail price of this bike!

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#14

Post by tyingq »

Zooming in, the belt says "Conti Drive System" on it. More info on that here: http://www.conti-drive-system.com/

They seem to be competing with the "Gates Carbon Drive", here: http://www.gatescarbondrive.com/

I know nothing of bicycles, but I do recall when automakers started replacing timing chains with timing belts. The results weren't always great, especially with interference engines where misaligned timing means bent valves.

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#16

Post by dsr_ »

mtdewcmu wrote: post #12

Can anyone figure out why it's so expensive? Here's a fancier-looking 26" bicycle on walmart.com for $79.97 - $249.00. [1] [1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/26-Roadmaster-Granite-Peak-Men-s-...

25 year frame warranty, 10 year belt warranty.

Basically, the cost of replacing it three times is built into the price.

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#17

Post by dsr_ »

legodt wrote: post #13
peterwwillis wrote: post #11

It's two gear, so it's not great for inclines, and the belt and frame are less durable. I'm not sure it's worth the money once you learn bicycle maintenance (but you could say that about a lot of IKEA furniture and woodworking/metalworking)

If the belt is like standard belt drives (I need to look further into this, not sure if Ikea cheaped out or not), it should actually stand up to time better than a chain would. Belts are simply carbon cord embedded in a molded casing of nylon and polyurethane, and, more importantly, do not have any moving parts or linkages. It's just a belt! So you don't have to worry about the metal pitting over time or road salt se…

...which is presumably why there's a 10 year warranty on the belt.

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#19

Post by legodt »

dsr_ wrote: post #17
legodt wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the belt is like standard belt drives (I need to look further into this, not sure if Ikea cheaped out or not), it should actually stand up to time better than a chain would. Belts are simply carbon cord embedded in a molded casing of nylon and polyurethane, and, more importantly, do not have any moving parts or linkages. It's just a belt! So you don't have to worry about the metal pitting over time or road salt se…

...which is presumably why there's a 10 year warranty on the belt.

Nice, good looking out. I assume Ikea isn't about to staff a mechanic for a low-occurance problem for a single product, so I wonder how they will handle warranty for the labor of replacing it.
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