[Closed] has anyone made a bike with shaft drive?

Sheldon Brown says don't do it.

http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_sa-o.html#shaft

I've seen a shaft driven Rohloff bike but helpfully can't remember who made it.

Too many friction losses.

Was a new brand at cycle show with road and MTB shaft drive bikes. Had a look I can see a few benefits. Needs a long term test. They looked good and service free. Can't remember the name

In fact Google is my friend

http://www.dynamicbicyclesuk.co.uk

Saw one a while ago, I thought it was a make called 'Milk Bikes'. I have just had a quick scan and I cannot find it though.

There have been a bunch - it's an idea that keeps repeating every decade or so since the 1890s, once people forget that it's a bad idea.

The problem is that bevel gears aren't as efficient as a chain, and you get wind-up in the shaft - all the shaft drives I've tried have felt like pedalling in treacle and have a disconcerting bounce to the pedals.

Plus, they're heavy as a very heavy thing.

IIRC there's a lovely post-war shaft drive bicycle in the BMW museum in Munich

Sheldon Brown says don't do it.

Here endeth the debate!

Sheldon Brown. Gone but not forgotten.

I guess this is where belt drive comes in, efficient but low maintenance.

There used to be a Japanese no brand shop in Glasgow that sold a shaft drive bike in the early 90s. Pretty sure the same one was on display until the shop closed down

Wasn't there a two wheel drive bike a few years ago - think maybe just the front wheel was shaft driven with the back a normal chain, but not sure.

There was that racing tandem recently with shaft drive between the front and rear riders, then conventional chain & gears at the back.

On a similar theme, I spotted this at Coventry Transport Museum, a crank driven bike.

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Some Danish company called Biomega made them quite recently:

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Thank you Tomd!!

I saw one of those a couple of years ago in that London and having seen no further evidence of their existence I doubted myself for a while.

Quite a few city bike hire schemes in France use them. The ones here have them with 3-speed hubs and from my experience with them, I have deduced that they use treacle as a lubricant for the internal movong parts.

It turns out that you can hire shaft-drive bikes in a certain picturesque village north of Windsor [url= https://www.cyclehireslough.com/ ]https://www.cyclehireslough.com/[/url]

Wasn't there a two wheel drive bike a few years ago

Saw one a while ago, I thought it was a make called 'Milk Bikes'.

As has been pointed out, too much friction losses in the bevel gears to make it worthwhile for mtb, although there are advantages for commuting and utility bikes.

Katzbikes made a very cool bike with a fully enclosed chain in the swingarm to a Rohloff hub.

There's an advert in the back of Cycling Active magazine for shaft drive bikes. I keep meaning to have a look at the website and forgetting.

From that photo that tomd has linked to, it could well be that brand.

Enclosed chain is definitely the way to go - Riese & Muller do a bunch of bikes with Rohloff and chains running inside the frame. Or there's the stunning Greenmachine recumbent bike with fully enclosed chain and mid-mounted Rohloff.

We had two at work for a while. They were awful.

[url= http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4043/4385738172_6de14fdf50_o.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4043/4385738172_6de14fdf50_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonjohntaylor/4385738172/ ]Steel is real...[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/simonjohntaylor/ ]Simon J Taylor[/url], on Flickr

Has anyone ever made a gear train bike, something like this.

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I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone has done it just to prove a point. So, have they ?

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[url= http://sonic.net/~ckelly/Seekay/mtbwelcome.htm ][b]2retro4u[/b][/url]
Marin County, Cali

Wasn't there a two wheel drive bike a few years ago - think maybe just the front wheel was shaft driven with the back a normal chain, but not sure.

[url= http://sonic.net/~ckelly/Seekay/weird_bike_stuff.htm ]Scroll to the bottom.[/url]

I'm liking the buddy bike on your page repack rider - where do some of these ideas come from!

Vélo bleu in Nice

[Url= http://www.christinibicycles.com/index.php ]christini[/url]

Gear train bikes were done over 100 years ago - I think it might have been in Bicycles and Tricycles, there's a nice sketch of one somewhere.

My favourite stupid drivetrain system is the hydraulic drive. Worked, but so inefficient it was pretty much unrideable.

Though I did some work for a Glasgow inventor a while ago, who had invented a very complicated system involving linkages, spiral shafts, and helical spur gears, very ingenious, a nightmare to make. But the advantage, as he saw it, was that if you pedalled forwards it went forwards. And if you pedalled backwards, it still went forwards.

Hire bikes
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Cheers for that link repackrider - Is it bad that I want to try a sail bike and the one that is like mecanno? A different bike everyday from kit parts...!

I rode one of those Christini two wheel drive bikes once. It tried to kill me.
I forgot that, being two wheel drive, also meant two wheel braking so as I rode along, popped a wheelie and pulled the front brake on it also locked the rear wheel up.

Cue me spiralling across a car park and much laughter from all on lookers.

It was a horrific bike in many other ways too.