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Comment by ohples | Hacker News Reader

This is one reason I wish belt drives where more common.

It's not hard to find e-bikes with belt drives. Honestly, I think they'll take over the e-bikes market within 10 years or so (I think there are still some outstanding patents?). More expensive and slightly less efficient than a chain, but both of those are probably negligible for the context of e-bikes, and in exchange you never get grease on your pant leg, you never need to lube anything, you never need to worry about a derailleur needing to have its gears realigned or having the chain jump out (of course you could have an internally-geared chain bike).

Probably the most interesting, cost-effective one I know of: https://lectricebikes.com/products/lectric-one-ebike

I have a lectric and the build quality is terrible. Had to deal with:

- a bent frame out of the box - a recall due to defective brakes - lights not secured properly - loose fender after less than 100km - a derailleur that refuses to allow use of all gears- no matter how adjusted it is unable to use either the lowest or highest

Motorbikes still overwhelmingly use chains, not sure why but there must be a good reason

Belts are not suitable for passing lots of torque. This is why cvt are not that popular outside of small-ish cars.

Harley Davidson, among others, uses belts. Torque isn't the issue in the context of m/c final drive. Chains are a tad more efficient, which hp obsessed customers fuzz about.

Yep. I have a single speed e bike with a belt drive and internal motor in the back wheel. Use it for commuting round London. 0 maintenance. None of this over engineered Bosch shit. Cheap Chinese 250w motor in the back, belt drive, aluminium frame. These should take off, but so far the major bike manufacturers have overcomplicated the category - and the startup that made mine has gone under (analog motion)

I feel like oil and those sorts of things would be even worse on a belt?

Most belt drives are run dry so the oil doesn’t attract dirt in the same way

My belt drive bike is dry, no lube at all. They advise you to wash it off with a hose if it gets dirty.

But the Shimano/Sram cartel really want to keep the chain/derailleur cash cow alive.

Belt drive is a fixed ratio system. It’s not comparable to a derailleur which has a wide range of gear ratios.

Apples and oranges. One doesn’t swap for the other. It’s not an industry conspiracy.

Belt drives are often used with an internally-geared hub, so the system as a whole still has gears.

The cycling industry and trends are based on processional racing and a chain/derailleur is going to maintain significantly more power transfer at that level than a belt drive or internally geared hub.

If Shimano/Sram cared about building top-shelf commuter drivetrains (Shimano has Alfine) they could easily purchase Gates or build a competing company.

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