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Hi all, quite a few of you were interested in the bike I was riding a while back... Well a few more versions have been built since.
Not a business and just for fun BTW mods
Be really interested to see what you all think of the concept and the designs.
Facebook page here for those that have Facebook!
https://m.facebook.com/TBikes-983643645051118/
Does it have some kind of freewheel mechanism?
Yeah good question... Thanks!
Bit more blurb I just thought of below....
Freewheels like a normal hub (sounds like a hope hub!)
LinkDrive uses a specific patented geometry of links to connect the pedals to cranks on the rear hub. The geometry ensures a smooth, forward biased action, where the downward stroke of one pedal starts before the lowest point of the other. This, combined with the near to vertical travel of the pedals maintains torque production for the complete cycle – great for tough climbs on an MTB and makes the most of the elegant simplicity of a single speed. Pedals are placed beneath the rider’s centre of gravity when in the saddle for increased pedal force minimising tiring out of the saddle pedalling.
Powerful pedalling action Great for toe clips /SPDs or flats Minimal maintenance with all joints, bearings and gears sealed No need for cycle clips (or tucking your trousers in your socks!) Road bikes, Folding bikes, MTB hard tail and full suspension, single speed and multi speed hubs in development.
This thread is useless without [s]pitchers[/s] videos!
Haaaaa yeah if it was not pissing with rain I would go to the shed and take some of the pedalling motion! Will post something to the Facebook page very soon though... Thanks!
That single speed folder impresses me greatly.
Thanks... I think to be fair this is one of the biggest plus points of the chainless design. Folds really flat and no oily chain to worry about. Will post some more pics of it folded shortly.
Very interesting idea! Couple of questions...
Is the 'pedal' action currently as shown in your photos as efficient as a traditional chain driven central pivoting crankset?
If I've understood this correctly - and probably not as I'm an idiot - if you were to lengthen the wheelbase at the chain stays making the 'levers' longer, yet maintained the rotational radius of the pedals, and the pivot point wasn't moved further away from the hub (admittedly the connection of the levers would need to be closer to the centre of the hub) the laws of leverage would suggest less effort to achieve more power to the rear wheel?... almost like having silly long crank arms...
Or am I missing something?
Good question! The current design mimics a 170mm crank arm. Longer arms would give more leverage to rear hub, just like longer links. Great think about the linkdrive technology is that you can tune the gear ratio by altering crank arm length, link length, pivot length and gearbox ratio. Pedalling the bike feels weird at first as it requires little effort to maintain a decent speed.... Bit like a step machine.... Standing up gives you maximum leverage and allows for max power transfer.
If you are ever in swinley at any point... Send me a message through Facebook and I would be more than happy for you to have a go!
Very interesting!
And I'm not far from swinley...
Awesome Rob... Send us a message. Could arrange a ride on the 3 speed mtb no problem!
Saw it last year on the streets of Bristol. Fabulous piece of engineering and looked to work very effectively.
Could do some very interesting experiments as "chainstay" length can be pretty much as short as you want - 36er maybe?...
Thanks Mick! Will be back at bespoked in a few weeks so if anyone is there keep an eye out for us.
Interesting design. How efficient is it compared to a chain? I'm just down the road in Ash Vale- if you ever need any test riders, give me shout.
To be honest it was my favourite bike of the whole trip to Bespoked! (even if it wasn't actually "in" the show).
Not sure if we will make it down this year 🙁
Pretty comparable if not slightly better. Obviously there is a tiny bit of loss in the epicyclic gear reduction stage but this is minimal. Having ridden the bike for around 500 miles around swinley, it feels easier to pedal than my "normal" bikes and strava says it's as fast. Find uphill is really where the linkage comes into its own as you can stand up like a step machine and put the power down.
Quite a bit of interest so will sort out a day in swinley where I will bring all the bikes for people to have a go. Appreciate the real world feedback as not many people have ridden them yet.
I had one of these in Oz. The treadle action takes a bit of getting used to.
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