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LOOK at this...drive shaft bike

Old 04-25-09, 10:43 AM
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LOOK at this...drive shaft bike

wen i saw that yesterday i went.......

mabe some off you no that stuff but i am sher a lot dont.

wow.no shain or belt..a drive shaft.

https://dekrabike.com/ddrive.htm
love it.



joco
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Old 04-25-09, 11:14 AM
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The concept has been around since the late 1800's and there was a commercial shaft drive bike put on the market by the Pope Bicycle Company in 1897. Nothing new.

The problems are weight, cost and lower efficiency.
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Old 04-25-09, 11:23 AM
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Originally Posted by HillRider
The concept has been around since the late 1800's and there was a commercial shaft drive bike put on the market by the Pope Bicycle Company in 1897. Nothing new.

The problems are weight, cost and lower efficiency.
Sure, but D-Drive has a Shimano internal gear mechanism which arguably could be a benefit.
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Old 04-25-09, 03:01 PM
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If you do a search there have been a number of discussions on current shaft drive bikes, primarily Dynamic and Incline as I recall. Enough reported problems from some owners that I would be leery of buying one but that is just my personal opinion. It sounds to me like there are design/assembly problems that can cause failures in some instances on the current bikes.

Any shaft drive setup requires two bevel gear sets and these are much less efficient than a chain. Add in the losses in a internal gear hub and efficiency is going to suffer. I personally like IGH bikes but will stick with chain drive for them.
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Old 04-25-09, 04:59 PM
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Old 04-25-09, 06:08 PM
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Originally Posted by JohnDThompson
Sure, but D-Drive has a Shimano internal gear mechanism which arguably could be a benefit.
I assume the reason Pope didn't was because no one had invented IGH's yet

As tatfiend noted, the shaft drive in inherently less efficient than a chain and a IGH is less efficient than a derailleur system. Double them up and the efficiency loss is appreciable.

A few months ago I got to briefly ride a Dynamic bike with a shaft drive and a Shimano 8-speed IGH. The resistance to pedaling was quite noticeable compared to a derailleur bike on the same road. Maybe it would have been ok if I hadn't been able to do an A-B test but the drag is there.
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