General Cycling Discussion - Do you have any cool bike ideas?

I have a few; one of them is having the gear shifters powered by Hydraulics, another idea is the use of shaft drive (used on some 2WD Mt bikes for front axle) - rather than using a chain, and combining both front/rear brake handles into one big brake handle.:D

What are your ideas!

Here are my thoughts (you asked for it)

Hydraulic shifters - It would be a fairly complicated system. You would have to have a shift up line and a shift down line for each derailer. Kind of a complicated way of doing a simple thing.

Shaft drive - It would be nice and smooth. It would also take an internal shifting hub to provide for gears. Here is the real problem that I see from an engineering effecency standpoint. When you are applying power to a drivetrain and change the direction of the torque, you have an inherent loss. You would have two direction changes on a shaft drive, which would sap your energy. (pedals spin parallel to the frame - shaft spins perpendicular to the frame - rear wheel spins parallel to the frame) On a chain drive everything is spinning parallel to the frame with no directional changes. That is a major reason that a bicycle is such an efficient machine. Since you are a car guy. (Me too) Most cars have a drive train power loss of around 17% from the flywheel to the rear wheels. That would really hurt on a bike.

Combined brake - That might work on the road. You would need some sort of foward /rear adjustable bias device. On a MTB the brakes are used very independently. So it would probably get you over the handlebars pretty quickly.

Wow - did I geek out on that or what???

You beat me to it Avalanche good job

I love technology, but for the most part, bikes are fine the way they are. And they have been for quite some time. I would prefer new technologies or ideas to solve or reduce existing problems(fewer flat tires, longer chain life, lower weight), than create new ones(overkill suspension, electric shifting?). I also want to be able to work on my bikes... so the less complicated things are, the better.

can you spell MORE WEIGHT?

Originally posted by 1oldRoadie
can you spell MORE WEIGHT?

Well after you gave it away... its no sport 1old... :D

Innovation? better skills, available in a breakfast cereal form, that both was good for you, and was high in chocolate!

yeah the torsional stress of shaft drive would eat away a decent amount of power. cars are inherently inefficient vehicles (do you know how wasteful the internal combustion engine is!!??), so to overcome this, they just add "MORE POWER", as Tim the Tool Man Taylor would so eloqently say. For bikes, you can't conveniently add more power just by pedaling harder.

I do remember reading a post about 2WD on some mountain bike on the forums a while back. It was a really ingenious concept, but i can't remember the specifics. It might be a good idea for off-road biking, cuz having thrust from both wheels could definitely have potential benefits for MTB racing, which may offset the loss of power inherent in 2WD.

Combined brake is definitely a no-no, because there are myriad situations where you want to have more rear pressure than front, and vice versa.

The shaft drive has been done, back in the 1900's Pope Bicycle as well as others built them. They are still offered today see http://customer.manufacture.com.tw/~worldscape/se2.htm

Tandem riders have used dual levers for years to operate the rim brakes from one lever and the drum brake from the other, three weeks ago I built up a bike with the new SRAM 3x9 with all the shifting and braking on the left hand side. I used a cable splitter to control both brakes from one lever. The customer lost most of the use of his right hand (can't squeeze) when he over shot a corner and hit a stone wall. He thought his riding days were done. Meet him on the road last week, he loves the bike! He's ridding again!

Hydraulic shifters, can't say I've seen this. But I'm sure it has been tried and forgotten about. Try searching patent web sights, you should see some of the really goofy stuff that's been tried.

Helmet Art!

How about belt drive?:D

Originally posted by lsd87
Helmet Art!

Yes, yes! Why should every helmet be dull when it would be just as easy to make the plastic cover something interesting...some airbrushed designs or something....maybe even let you choose your helmet design, like the website that lets you choose your own snowboard graphics.

Originally posted by smelly
How about belt drive?:D

jeebus, dont get me started. I would have looked really hard at a Buell Firebolt if it werent for the belt drive. :P I cant believe people bet their lives that a belt will hold up at 100+mph. I know the people that race them buy the chain conversion first thing...

Originally posted by jrxl
jeebus, dont get me started. I would have looked really hard at a Buell Firebolt if it werent for the belt drive. :P I cant believe people bet their lives that a belt will hold up at 100+mph. I know the people that race them buy the chain conversion first thing...

I was joking!:D

Originally posted by bentbaggerlen
Hydraulic shifters, can't say I've seen this. But I'm sure it has been tried and forgotten about.

I haven't heard of hydraulic shifting either but I've seen pneumatic shifting.

Originally posted by smelly
I was joking!:D

i know, but i never can resist an opportunity to bash a harley or a buell. :D

You can get fairly high quality Swiss-made city bikes with shaft drive. Some of the gearing is at the bottom bracket rather than the hub. They suffer all the efficiency drawbacks of shafts, but are neat and totally enclosed.
Id love to see the revival of enclosed chain-drives with hub gears (anyone for a Rohloff 14spd), like the old Sunbeam oil-bath design of the 1920s. The chaincase was a structural element which replaced the chain-stay. Mike Burrows of Lotus bike fame has built some versions of this, using composite monocoque construction.