{"id":174278,"date":"2019-06-19T14:41:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T14:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=174278"},"modified":"2019-06-19T14:41:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T14:41:24","slug":"breaking-the-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/06\/19\/breaking-the-chain\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Chain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Your bike chain is greasy, noisy, and it stretches. It falls off and sometimes breaks \u2013 just because you wanted it to skip three gears up to the big ring. Chains \u2013 do we really need them?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Get shafted<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Cars don\u2019t use chains, so why should bikes? Since at least 1898, drive shafts have been a serious consideration for bike manufacturers. There are many advantages to a drive shaft, not least the fact that a drive shaft can take up less space and be fully enclosed, as celebrated by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bicyclepatentartprints.com\/bicycle-wall-art-patent-prints.html\">Bicycle Patent Prints<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/06\/1898-double-shaft-drive-bike-drawing-print.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-174279\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2019\/06\/1898-double-shaft-drive-bike-drawing-print-1024x643.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"643\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Say goodbye to grease smears on your trousers and legs \u2013 and you can spend more time cleaning the rest of your bike. That said, even with the lightest of modern materials, a driveshaft needs to be substantial enough to deliver consistent efficiency without deforming.<\/p>\n<lite-youtube videoid=rgo-yEaXDzA params=\"enablejsapi=1\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi_webp\/rgo-yEaXDzA\/maxresdefault.webp');\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<p>But, while your legs may remain grease free, even the most expensive shafts weigh in at over 500 g. And while CeramicSpeed\u2019s innovation should be applauded, serious cyclists should think long and hard about the effect aggressive torque will have on those aluminium cogs.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Tighten your belt<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>With belt drives becoming increasingly common in \u201ccommuter\u201d and \u201curban\u201d bikes, it\u2019s time to address some concerns. As a car driver and a cyclist, I had some totally unfounded belief that a belt would be almost elastic or, worse, brittle under the pressure of torque. But if belt drives were this fragile, why would they use them in motorbikes?<\/p>\n<lite-youtube videoid=1X_Yq04KweM params=\"enablejsapi=1\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi_webp\/1X_Yq04KweM\/maxresdefault.webp');\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<p>Actually, belt drives perform extremely well and as Mr Van Duzer explains, they require very little maintenance. You don\u2019t need to re-grease them and they don\u2019t wear in quite the same way as chains because they\u2019re not skipping across cogs on a cassette.<\/p>\n<lite-youtube videoid=huP_J7p3H0k params=\"enablejsapi=1\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi_webp\/huP_J7p3H0k\/maxresdefault.webp');\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<p>And that\u2019s the biggest criticism of belt drives. A chain can drive both hub gears as well as cassettes. But, considering low maintenance is the raison d&#8217;\u00eatre of belt drives, it\u2019s almost a blessing that they work best with single speeds and hub gears. And with the increased performances in hub gears, as the demand for them grows, you can expect to see more belt drives on the road.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Direct drive<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Why not just do away with shafts, belts, and chains. The resurgent popularity of penny-farthing type rides reconnects your pedals directly with the wheels. But, as this video points out, a large front wheel comes with a unique set of safety issues. This may rule out penny-farthings for the commute.<\/p>\n<lite-youtube videoid=RetUMNuXTv0 params=\"enablejsapi=1\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi_webp\/RetUMNuXTv0\/maxresdefault.webp');\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<p>One thing that I\u2019m surprised not to have seen is a cross between a penny farthing and a drift-trike. In this next video, you\u2019ll see the sheer joy that riding a front wheel direct-drive cycle can deliver. Imagine how much extra that fun could be with hub gears within the wheel.<\/p>\n<lite-youtube videoid=djBE9ZfHI4I params=\"enablejsapi=1\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi_webp\/djBE9ZfHI4I\/maxresdefault.webp');\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<p>If anyone knows of a front-wheel-drive cycle with hub-gears, please share! I can\u2019t help but think that will be the future of trikes, and recumbents alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your bike chain is greasy, noisy, and it stretches. It falls off and sometimes breaks \u2013 just because you wanted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":174284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334],"tags":[3153,3151,3152,3150,3155,3154],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-174278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-socialising-and-culture","tag-belt-drive","tag-bicycle-patent-prints","tag-ceramicspeed","tag-chain","tag-mr-van-duzer","tag-penny-farthing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Breaking the Chain - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Your bike chain is greasy, noisy, and it stretches. 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