Technical > Transmission

A Bike without a chain

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StuntPilot:
Just stumbled upon the Brik Bike, a Dutch company producing a bike that has no chain or belt drive ...

http://brikbikes.com/bikes/

Interesting!  ;D

A video ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lC4EIq07Fw

Danneaux:
I have seen bikes of various brands with this identical drive system on occasion locally. Amazingly, the local St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop had a pair of them for sale just a couple weeks ago that looked barely used.

It is indeed an interesting design. The earlier models I saw were far more worn than the recent examples and had developed a lot of lash in the drivetrain. I have no idea if they required periodic lubrication/maintenance and no idea of the mileage on them, though they looked like they'd been ridden hard and were looking poorly overall.

Always nice to see alternative approaches. The shaft drive is not a new thing, but the basic drive mechanism used on the bikes in your links seems to be the one of default now.

Best,

Dan.

Andre Jute:
Brooks is doing well! Every saddle on a boutique bike I see seems to be a Brooks.

Pavel:
I like that concept.  The chain is a design still stuck in the Neolithic era. Anything to do away with it is progress.  I find it surprising how affordable these bikes are relative to any cutting edge bicycle designs here in the hipster US of A, where my guess is that a company marketing a bike like this would try to squeeze $6000 out of their well bled target customer.

I even like the low key advertising. That Brik Sec Mens is pretty close to a perfect handlebar to seat arrangement for someone of my age.  I am truly impressed. Only the lack of apparent luggage rack mount points is a shame - taking this out of serious consideration for me.

Nice to see choice and progress away from those grimy, maintenance heavy, old fashioned, chain infested bicycles from over a hundred years ago. :)

Not good bikes for the downward side of the mountains however.  Are there really no hills in Holland?

martinf:
Shaft drive has been around for ages.

One of the downsides is that it drives through 2 bevel gears, one at the front and one at the back. This reduces efficiency compared to a chain or belt drive, not sure by how much on a bicycle, but I've seen 5 to 10% quoted for motorbikes. And some shaft drive motorbikes have the engine arranged longitudinally to eliminate one of the bevel gears, this would be rather difficult on a bicycle.

As I see it, the main advantage of shaft drive over chain drive is the elimination of an exposed and messy chain. A chaincase solves that problem, like shaft drive chaincases have been around for ages. I'm quite happy with the Chainglider, a modern chaincase that will fit to most of the hub-geared bicycles I have.

AFAIK it is not possible to fit belt drive, shaft drive or a (good) chaincase to bikes with derailleur transmission.

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