Hello All,

This is in response to the long post by "sookieplume" regarding Dynamic Chainless bicycles. I bought a Dynamic bicycle over a year ago. I use it for my daily commute (10km round trip along a flat gravel path). Even though I live far away from the Dynamic folks, they have been very helpful on the phone and the initial shipment here to Switzerland was very fast.

I think I'm the only person in Switzerland with such a bike. I love the fact that it doesn't have a chain. The wheels, brakes & frame are great. I had a problem earlier this year with the shaft though. The nice folks at Dynamic spent hours with me on the phone patiently explaining things I could try out. They then sent me a new shaft free of charge. I think that's great customer service.

The probelm I had from the beginning was with too much torque, the shaft started crunching. As I live in Switzerland, we do have a few hills. I took the shaft apart and expected to see broken teeth. The teeth were all fine but I could not use the bike up hill nor could a go faster than a very leisurely pace without this terrible crunching. Over time it got worse so that the bike could not be used at all.

I've now installed a new shaft and have ridden back and forth to work 10 times. The first few days were great. I thought my problems were over. After day 4 or 5, strange noises have again started to come from the shaft. Last week I took my old beach cruiser (with a chain) to work instead as I didn't like the creaking noise coming from the shaft.

I have several theories what is going wrong:

1. The shaft is not fully sealed, dirt can get in through the back. Perhaps dirt, pebbles, etc. comes in through the back. I do ride along a gravel path.

2. I weigh 220 lbs. Perhaps this shaft just can't take the torque. Perhaps shaft driven bicycles just can't handle folks that weigh that much.

3. Perhaps I'm really unlucky and have a lemon (inspite of the second shaft)

4. Perhaps these problems occur with all these bikes and chains are a superior technology.

5. Perhaps my local Swiss bike shop screwed something up when they installed an automatic dynamo light system (I can't figure out how this would have anything to do with the shaft).

6. Perhaps I have to add grease. Should I really have to add grease after only 50 km??

Any ideas anyone?

Karl from Switzerland