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Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

ikea.com

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Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#41

Post by BoorishBears »

yupyupp wrote: post #26
tyingq wrote: post #14

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…

Belt driven bikes have actually been around for quite a while. They aren't nearly as common as chained bikes but are generally less greasy/dirty. They are also usually good for people who don't do a ton of bike maintenance because (unlike a chain) a belt will never rust.

I remember us using the hardware for a belt driven bike in a solar car race, I recall it offered higher efficiency than chain drives that were available.

Edit: Actually I think the main draw was the continuous gear ratios you got, somewhat comparable to a CVT

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#43

Post by yupyupp »

BoorishBears wrote: post #41
yupyupp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Belt driven bikes have actually been around for quite a while. They aren't nearly as common as chained bikes but are generally less greasy/dirty. They are also usually good for people who don't do a ton of bike maintenance because (unlike a chain) a belt will never rust.

I remember us using the hardware for a belt driven bike in a solar car race, I recall it offered higher efficiency than chain drives that were available. Edit: Actually I think the main draw was the continuous gear ratios you got, somewhat comparable to a CVT

This is true. There tends to be a lot of power loss due to friction from rotation of the links around the pins in a chain.

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#44

Post by claudius »

mrfusion wrote: post #18

I have a 30yeae old bike and I've never done anything special with the chain. Should I be worried?

As a rule of thumb, one should replace the chain every 1000 to 5000 km, depending on the force you exert when cycling. Since the chain otherwise tends to stretch, it will eventually be misaligned with the chain wheels and start to wear those down. As the latter are more expensive to replace, it’s a good idea to replace the chain first.

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#45

Post by yupyupp »

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)

What makes you say the frame is less durable?

It says that the frame is powder coated. Powder coating tends to last a lot longer and survive more abuse than paint does. Also its a aluminum frame so it is not going to be rusting either.

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#46

Post by cbr »

woodruffw wrote: post #22
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-...

Walmart and other big-box store bicycles are infamous in the cycling community for their poor quality and assembly, often to the point of being completely unsafe to ride at any speed (Nader reference intended). They often use the cheapest high-tensile steel they can find, off-brand rims, mix-and-match groupsets, low-quality brakes, and so forth. The bike you linked exemplifies that - mixed Shimano/SRAM components and…

    mixed Shimano/SRAM components
Is this an actual problem, or just something someone only would do if they were heavily trying to minimize cost?

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#47

Post by yupyupp »

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…

Someone mentioned it is a "conti-drive system". Which iirc is one of Continental's belts. Continental is well regarded in the cycling community for making high quality quality kevlar-core tires that withstand a lot of abuse (gator skins) so I'd imagine their belts are fairly good as well.

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#48

Post by cbr »

yupyupp wrote: post #39
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-...

Like others said, the frame material is a huge part of the cost/value difference. But I'll also point out the fact that the IKEA bike is powder coated, has a belt drive, a coaster break, a disk break, and an internal gear hub. That combination of components makes this bike basically maintenance free. If this bike was left on a bike rack outside a college dorm for a school year it would be perfectly fine; the same can…

    If this bike was left on a bike
    rack outside a college dorm for
    a school year it would be
    perfectly fine
To be fair, it would probably be stolen.

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#49

Post by david-given »

woodruffw wrote: post #22
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-...

Walmart and other big-box store bicycles are infamous in the cycling community for their poor quality and assembly, often to the point of being completely unsafe to ride at any speed (Nader reference intended). They often use the cheapest high-tensile steel they can find, off-brand rims, mix-and-match groupsets, low-quality brakes, and so forth. The bike you linked exemplifies that - mixed Shimano/SRAM components and…

Disc brake --- the rear brake is a back-pedal job, unfortunately, which makes it a write-off from my perspective; years of cycling ordinary bicycles mean that I tend to automatically move the pedals backwards while coasting to a comfortable position, and doing this with a back-pedal brake leads to unhappy experiences.

I'm impressed by the add-on bicycle trailer, obvious being sold as a first-class citizen. A lot of IKEA stuff is modular and eminently hackable --- like, literally today I have assembled 40kg of random furniture into a workbench/desk for my study by bolting together bits of office with bits of bedroom. I'm sure there's interesting things to do with it. It looks like you can restow the towbar to make a convenient handle for pulling it.

Oh, yeah, it's an automatic gearbox, too.

Here's a random review:

http://cyclingbikebible.com/real-user-reviews-ikea-flat-pack...

Re: Flat Pack Chainless Bicycle from IKEA

#50

Post by cwiggs »

Does anyone know if the trailer can be used with other bikes? I don't see anywhere on the site where it explains how it attaches to the bike.

edit: nevermind, i missed the manual. It looks like it will attach to just about any bike as it just attaches to the bicycle's rear wheel.

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