DailyDirt: Un-chained Bikes

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Bike enthusiasts do a lot of kinda crazy things (like developing human flight), so it's not that unusual for bike designers to come up with some interesting innovations in transportation every so often. If you've ever been annoyed by a bike chain eating your pant leg or just getting you greasy, here are a few solutions that completely eliminate the need for those pesky metal links.

• Hungarian bicycle designers made a chainless bike that uses high density polyethylene (HDPE) strings in a pulley system. This design also lets cyclists (or potential thieves...) remove the rear bike tire very easily since no chain is attached to the rear wheel. [url]
• Dynamic Bicycles sells a chainless bike with a drive shaft with shielded internal gears that aren't exposed to the elements. No strings or chains in this design, just some gears turning a shaft connected to a Shimano transmission hub on the rear wheel. [url]
• The Lunartic bike concept is belt-driven and also has a hubless rear wheel. Suspension seems like a problem for this bike design, but there's no annoying chain to deal with. [url]
• Western Michigan University students have created a hydraulic bike that uses fluids instead of a chain to transfer pedaling power into forward motion. The BroncoBike doesn't look exactly lightweight or compact, so it's probably not a very practical alternative to a traditional bike chain (yet?). [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: bikes, broncobike, chainless, hydraulics, transportation
Companies: dynamic bicycles, shimano