“Bicycles, Unchained and Grease-Free” – By ANNE EISENBERG

THE wheels on bikes haven’t been reinvented — though the chains are getting an update.

Those clinking roller chains that are now standard on most bicycles have long had a drawback known to any cyclist: they become grimy, and can soil a pants leg or a skirt. That’s because the metal links must be oiled regularly, and the oil attracts dirt.

Now companies are developing new designs and materials to replace these chains with grease-free alternatives like polymer cables or belts toughened with carbon fibers.

The Gates Corporation in Denver, a maker of industrial and auto parts, offers belt-driven systems for biking that, unlike chains, require no lubrication, said Frank Scurlock, its global business development manager. The belts, made of polyurethane and shot through with carbon cords to give them tensile strength, have teeth on one side that engage with metal pulleys to turn the belt as the pedals rotate. Other companies offering belt-drive systems for bicycles include Schlumpf Innovations in Vilters, Switzerland, and CycleDrive Systems in Foxborough, Mass.

Belt-driven systems were first used primarily on single-speed mountain bikes but are now appearing on multigeared commuter and city bikes as well, said Larry Wallach, manager of the Sid’s Bikes store in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

“They last much longer than chains, and are quiet and clean,” Mr. Wallach said. “In a perfect world, everyone would probably use them because they require less maintenance.”

But new belt-driven systems are likely to be a bit more expensive than chains, and can be installed only on frames adapted to their use, he said. That’s because links in metal chains can usually be popped open to slide a chain into position. But much like the timing belts on car engine, the new, continuous bike belts cannot be opened. Instead, the bicycle frame must have an opening, typically in the back, to let the belt pass through for installation.

Andy Newsom of Brooklyn says the benefits of belts are worth the possible premium. Mr. Newsom commutes daily on his bright blue, single-speed bicycle outfitted with a Gates belt drive. The three-mile trip from his home to the Union Square area of Manhattan, where he works framing art for galleries and museums, takes him about 20 minutes. He likes the belt because it’s strong, doesn’t stretch and, best of all, requires no oil.

“It doesn’t get grease on my clothes,” he said, “which makes it great for commuting.”

Gates began selling its bicycle belt systems in 2007. Today, they are included in models from 24 companies, including Trek, Specialized Globe and Raleigh. The systems, which have one belt and front and rear pulleys, can also be bought from many frame manufacturers for use in customized bikes. Prices for the system are $150 to $280, Mr. Scurlock said.

Gates recently announced the CenterTrack, a sleek new belt system, for the growing commuter and urban market. Its new belt has channels on its underside that fit snugly into the metal pulleys, which have a raised center track. The systems will be available to bike makers in early summer 2011, he said, and will cost slightly more than current offerings from the company.

CenterTrack was devised by the bicycle enthusiast and inventor Wayne Lumpkin, who owns Spot Brand, the bike company in Golden, Colo., that provides distribution, engineering and warranty services for Gates. The first bicycle with CenterTrack to reach the market may be the Acme, an 11-speed bike designed by Mr. Lumpkin and Sky Yaeger. It will cost about $2,000, and will be introduced in April, Mr. Lumpkin said.

Another chainless bike, the StringBike, is being developed in Budapest by the inventor Robert Kohlheb and his business partner, Mihaly Lantos, a patent lawyer. The bike replaces the chain and sprockets with a symmetrical combination of pivoting levers, pulleys and polyethylene cables or “strings” on both sides. (Mr. Lantos chose the word “strings” in part because he is a lover of classical music.)

When the right foot pushes the pedal down, a lever pivots. The pulleys attached to the lever go forward, pulling the cables with them to propel the back wheel. Then, as the left foot pushes down, the action is repeated on the other side.

Prototypes of the bike have been shown at trade shows in Cologne, Germany, and Padua, Italy, Mr. Lantos said.

The bikes’ development was financed predominantly by the two men, with additional support from the Hungarian government. Schwinn-Csepel, a bicycle company in Budapest, has been licensed to assemble and sell the bikes within Europe. The price will probably be 2,500 to 3,000 euros (about $3,500 to $4,200), he said.

As bike lanes are added to more city streets, chainless drive systems may catch on with urbanites looking for low-maintenance solutions, said Mr. Wallach at Sid’s Bikes.

“I think the belt-driven system will start to quietly encroach on the urban pavement market,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/business/24novel.html?_r=1

For info on Abio Bikes please visit http://AbioBikes.com

“Hi all. Just thought I’d share a little feedback on the Abio Verdion that I recieved via Fedex today and promptly put through its paces on the streets of San Francisco. Note that I am just an independent customer who bought this bike at full price and have no affiliations with any company.

First off, a little context about me (skip this paragraph if you just want to hear about the Verdion). I’ve lived in SF for four years now and started being comfortable with biking here within the last 3. I hadn’t biked for quite a while before moving here from the east coast and started with your typical big box store commuter, then upgraded to a “better” commuter (Fuji Absolute 2.0) before making the leap head first onto a folding bike: a Strida 5.0. The Strida has been my trusty companion virtually every day for the last 2 years. It is amazing at what it does (provide useful transportation in a super fast-folding and convenient package). That said, the Strida has distinct disadvantages as well: no gears, slower ride, can’t stand on petals to accelerate. Also, mine is getting pretty beat up and the welded in frame doesn’t allow for repair of the folding handlebar mechanism (the eyelet wells that house the pegs that stabilize the folding handlebars are worn away, so the only thing keeping them tight is the pressure clamp which constantly works itself loose while riding).

While clearly not as compact or fast folding as the Strida, the Abio Verdion appears to address all of these major disadvantages. Firstly let me mention the main reason I was drawn to this particular folding bike when so many use a similar type of fold: the belt drive. If you haven’t tried one, its easy to hate on it, but once you do, you could easily be converted. This is the first consumer-priced bike I have seen (folding or “regular” alike) that offers gears AND a belt drive! I’m pretty confident it won’t be the last. The fact that it has a great ride and can stow into your car trunk in less than a minute are icing on the cake. For the unacquainted the main disadvantage of a belt drive has traditionally been the difficulty in including proper gearing. And indeed, the Verdion has only four gears. That said for me, a city commuter, they seem very well spaced and I used all four of them on my test run. The advantages of a belt drive are as follows: very low maintenance, can’t rust, virtually silent, doesn’t snag pants nearly as easily, no need for lubrication and no grease to get on hands/clothes/whatever the bike touches, actually MORE durable than a chain.

Abio claims the bikes ship 95% assembled and ready to ride, and I believe this to be the case. All you have to do is remove a bunch of plastic, pop in the quick release for the frame fold, tighten a few things and pump up the tires. The belt drive seemed perfect in its pre-tightened factory state, so I left it alone. Coming from the Strida, I must say that the Abio handles much more like a “normal” bike. The fact that both the handlebars and the seat are very easily height adjusted make for a very easy to customize ride; I prefer a more upright position (a la Strida) but you could just as easily raise the seat more and lower the bars for a more hunched road-bike position.

The Nexus internal gear hub works quite well. Transitions were smooth and generally responsive- only a few times did I get a bit of lag before switching gears. The handlebar control works well enough, though it could be a bit more ergonomic- upshifting to a higher gear is easy with the thumb, but downshifting (like when you want to be in a lower gear before a stop to make it easy to start again) is a bit hard to reach while braking at the same time since its done with with a button on top. Not a deal breaker at all, just takes a little practice. That said, I was surprised how intuitively I was able to enjoy the ride, the sign of a keeper .

Coming from the Strida, the fold is the one area where the Strida has the edge, but I pretty much knew that going into it. Suffice it to say, if we view these types of bikes as the compromise that they are, the Strida is clearly on the convenience/portability end of the spectrum and the Verdion is on the “more of a bike” end, though neither has an awful ride or is a beast to fold and transport respectively. The Verdion does have the clever “double lock” joints which keep the unit folded. It also has the ability to roll on the rear wheel when folded (you can push the seat). The only problems I’ve found with the limited time I’ve used it folded are that the front wheel and stem like to swing around alot, the folded package doesn’t really have a good way to stay upright on the ground, and there isn’t a really good handle to make it easy to carry. I’m sure in time I’ll figure out what works for me. Suffice it to say, I won’t be folding this one and taking it with me into places nearly as much as the Strida, but rather locking it outside unfolded. Thats ok though, because the folding isn’t too bad when you need to use it.

So far, I’m really happy with this bike and I’ll update when I’ve incorporated it into my daily life. I’m probably going to want to get fenders (the rainy season in SF isn’t too far off) and I kind of wish there was a black option (I’m really trying to get used to the pastel “seafoam” green) but I’m comfortable enough not to let it bug me . The Strida will stay in my stable for those times when portability is the key factor, but the Verdion may very well replace it as my primary commuter.” ~Solsticejk

Source: Bike Forums

Abio Bikes is a chainless folding bike company based in New York and Vancouver. For more info, visit AbioBikes.com

We get this call one day asking how many Abio chainless folding bikes can fit into a car.

Abio-er: “Why…that’s easy. Depends on what kind of car you have. Many folding bikes if you have a truck or a few if you have small car.”

Caller: “Well, I have a compact car and my girlfriend has a Dahon and we both want to drive out to the beach for a ride.”

Abio-er: “First of all, you need to cover the chains on your gf’s Dahon so it won’t dirty your car” (Jk – we didn’t say this – editor’s plug) “….Most compact cars can easily fit 2 folding bikes, in fact, our evil boss can fit up to 5 slick chainless bikes in his little Mini-Cooper.”

Caller: “No way!”

Abio-er: “Waay!”

Caller: “No way!”

Abio-er: “Waaay! Dude give me 10 minutes and I’ll show you right now.”

Caller: “Ok, I’ll wait 10 minutes so you can show me right now.”

….10 minutes later….

2 Verdions (belt drive bike) + 3 Penzas (shaft drive bike) = no space for girlfriend but a lot of fun anyways!

Hmm… this sounds like a good challenge…stay tuned!!

If you would like to contribute photos feel free to send them to info@abiobikes.com, we would love to hear from you. www.abiobikes.com

Whether you are pavement pounder or a sidewalk sidewinder you can probably gain a little riding knowledge from the experts. For me, using my Abio chainless folding bike is still the most versatile way to get around traffic. Hit up your local bicycle coalition for more information.

http://www.vacc.bc.ca/
www.abiobikes.com

The Abio Verdion is Bruce’s daily commuting bike and lives up to its reputation of a quality bike!

For more information on belt drive bikes, please visit AbioBikes.com
(Click on pictures below to enlarge)

Gates Belt Kit: Front sprocket: 60T; Rear sprocket: 24T; Belt: 122T; FSA Carbon Crank

With an introduction of new products into any market there may be some resistance to acceptance in the form of skepticism or cynicism. At Abio, we thought we would create a Cole’s notes to highlight some of the features of our chainless folding bikes.

Quick Release Levers

The point of our quick release levers is exactly as the name describes. The function of the levers is to create a quick firm seal around the folding hinge to prevent wobble in the main body and handle bar stem during riding. As an ancillary to the quick release levers, the folding joints from the main body and handle bar stem have locking mechanisms that prevent the bikes from unraveling during transport in fold position.

Internal Gear Hub
We have to thank the evolution of the internal geared hub for helping to blossom both the shaft and belt drive mechanisms. The relatively maintenance free system uses a set of planetary gears that rotates about a stationary sun gear. The bottom line – the internal hub provides a range of gearing options that is fully enclosed and compact. More on the system can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hub_gear

Shaft Drive
If you can believe it shaft drives have been introduced over a century ago. The shaft drive system uses a combination of precision beveled gears to translate rotational motion to linear motion on the rod or shaft. The spinning shaft then transfers motion back to another set of beveled gears to propel the rear wheels. The result is that you have a drive system that is entirely enclosed. The shaft drive is safe for all pants from getting caught on moving parts or grease. Let’s not forget to mention you look pretty chic too.

Belt Drive
The belt drive is much simpler to conceptualize. It looks like your conventional chain assembly but instead uses a belt made of synthetic materials developed by Gates. The Gates belt is highly durable and is used in many industrial applications with much more demanding requirements than a leisure bike ride. Since our belt drives are mated with internal gearing system you get a truly greasless system.

Nexus 3sp and 4sp
When people hear that Abio Bike’s are equipped with 3, 4sp gears, they may be reluctant that it will meet their riding needs. We want to point out that yes it is a 3,4sp set up but the gears are spaced wider apart. In other words, the gearing jumps are greater when going from gear 1 to 2. This allows Abio’s 3,4sp gears to cover a similar gearing range as say a 7 or 8sp bike.

For more info visit www.abiobikes.com

There were literally hundreds of cyclists and roller bladders on the trail. On the path you cross totem poles, architechural lined horizons, sandy beach fronts – simply gorgeous landscapes. To navigate throughout the entire park you’ll be riding approximately 10km starting from Coal Harbour and entering into English Bay. There are plenty of interesting pit stops along the way so don’t feel obligated to train like Lance Armstrong before making the trek. Just remember stay on the right side, the left side is for passing!
Here are some photos of the amazing day I had!

http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/

www.abiobikes.com

Penza Electric Blue

We like to think Abio’s current colour offerings are far from mediocrity and appeals to those who like to stand out amongst the crowd. Our colours are vibrant and fresh.

For the sake of fun, we’ve decided to explore the colour possibilities with the help of Photoshop.

We would love to hear from you, let us know what you think at info@abiobikes.com

Check us out at www.abiobikes.com

Penza Brown

Penza Electric Red

Penza Steel Grey