it does look more durable with all the the added metal but how could that make it faster? but either way, I never had durability issues with my bike chains (including motorcycles), specially when you can adjust for "stretching"
New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
51–60 of 226 posts
Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
They very much are making that claim. > The future apparently isn’t far away, as New Motion Labs has developed a new Dual Engagement chain that is supposedly able to transfer high power on both sides of the tooth, over nearly all the teeth available to the chain.
> According to New Motion Labs, because the chain engages on both sides of the tooth, it is effectively locked in position, theoretically spreading the power distribution over many teeth, increasing efficiency, and reducing wear. Yeah, I'm also wondering about how much energy it takes to "lock it in place", and then, of course, unlock it. I've been a cyclist for 30 years now, and there's always been a steady stream o…
Spreading over many teeth is very interesting, I'm pretty sure that it doesn't happen in real life. You'd need elasticity to exceed imprecision and there's definitely no place anywhere in chain or sprocket were you'd not try to avoid as much elasticity as you can.
Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#53> They’re soon going to be used in top-tier UCI track races.
And that is where this monstrosity will stay, until they find a way to fit it into a 6 speed derailleur system to make it viable for $60 bikes sold in Walmart, and eventually an 11 speed derailleur system.
Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
The advantage here is that the chain could be made backwards-compatible with existing conventional drivetrains. The Gates drive can't be retrofitted onto older frames.
Why can't it be? My bike is a fixed gear track frame. If the threads of the sprockets are compatible with the rear wheel, then it should be able to fit.
The belt is a closed loop and under high tension when installed. Your frame needs to be able to be opened to let the belt in, then your sprocket pack needs to be able to move backwards, so you can put tension on it.
Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given a conventional chain can be up to 98% efficient then the maximum increase in efficiency is 1/.98 - 1 = 2.04%
Is 100% efficiency physically possible? Or are they just trying to get as close as they can, knowing they can never truly reach 100%?
Wouldn’t a vélocipède be 100% efficient (in transferring motion of legs into motion of the wheel)?
Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#56Reduced chain width has significantly changed bicycle drive trains over recent decades. Bicycles have many more usable gears. A manufacturer who pushed a non-standard chain heavily would wound cycle shops. Standardization facilities keeping parts in stock.
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Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#57Great chain, but the Gates Carbon Drive is likely a superior technology. Europe has largely adopted it, but it is rare in the states. I have a Riese & Müller bike with a Gates Carbon Drive and it is absolutely lovely. Silent, but best of all, no grease on my pants or hands, ever. They handle dirt and dust super well (just dry off and wipe down with a cloth/no gears get jammed with a sealed planetary gear system). It…
I live in the Netherlands and have traveled Europe very extensively and I have never seen one single belt driven bike... I have a feeling that it'll be a long time before Europe widely adopts them :) Does look very cool, though.
"Largely adopted" also avid cyclist both in the city and in the countryside, and I don't recall seeing one of these ever
Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
The advantage here is that the chain could be made backwards-compatible with existing conventional drivetrains. The Gates drive can't be retrofitted onto older frames.
Why can't it be? My bike is a fixed gear track frame. If the threads of the sprockets are compatible with the rear wheel, then it should be able to fit.
Unlike a chain the belt is a closed loop, you can only use it with a frame that can be opened in the rear triangle.
Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#59Side note: I used to work in a bike shop for about ten years. One time had a guy come in who worked with Kyronics. We all made jokes about freezing dead people - but he said you can apply Kryonics to a wide array of stuff not just dead people. One of the many things some of the team riders were seriously considering was having their cranks, chains and frames frozen since its supposed to alter the molecular structure…
If that technique made any bike part better, Shimano, Campagnolo, and SRAM or whoever was around at the time would have been doing it.
Cryogenic hardening is a established procedure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryogenic_hardening
Re: New bike chain claims to be faster, more durable
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want to shift gears using the carbon drive you have to use an internal gear hub, which has a lot less range than a traditional derailleur and is less efficient. So if you are riding a racing or mountain bike a chain system is probably a better way to go. Also it looks like you can't shift under load with the internal hubs which is a problem if you are trying to climb hills quickly.
> a lot less range Maybe in the more popular implementations like from Shimano. But there's internal hubs with greater ratio spread than chained: The Rohloff: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/internal-gears.html
...which at ~€1100 costs more than many people will spend on a bike, weighs more than a full set of sprockets and a derailleur, is less efficient due to the staged planetary drive, can only be repaired by sending it back to the factory, can (like other planetary drives) not be shifted under load and as such is more of an interesting novelty than a real solution to the stated problem.