Bogley

Sombeech · Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 11257 Location: The Rubbish Bin

Are these going to replace chains and deraileurs?

http://www.webbicycle.com/

derstuka · Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 1275 Location: San Diego, CA

Would you be sad if they can make this superior to chains & deraileurs? How do you feel about it?

accadacca · Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 7035 Location: The Interwebs

Huh? It doesn't look as cool as a chain. So -2 on the style points. :bootyshake:

Selling points:
• No Chain to break or come off
• No external gears or parts
• No more greasy hands and legs
• No more ripped pants or pinched fingers
• Smooth and quiet with very low maintenance

:bore: Cry me a river...what pansie wears pants on a bike. :lol8:

Not to hijack the thread. But does anyone remember that bike they show on the infomercials that would shift for you. Hilarious..... :toofunny: On the commercial they would act like it was just so hard to use shifters. Then they would show them on trails and stuff. Yeah right!! :bash:

derstuka · Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 1275 Location: San Diego, CA

Do you mean THE:

AutoBike
Automatic shifting bicycle
4 payments of $59.99 equals $239.95 plus $49.99 S&H
800-240-1596; AutoBike Classic, 14 Norfork Ave., South Easton, MA 02375

accadacca · Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 7035 Location: The Interwebs

That's it!!! :getiton: Do you have one?

derstuka · Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 1275 Location: San Diego, CA

Hell, yeah, it's all I ride. Who needs to manual shift when the shifting is done for you? Haven't you seen the part of the commercial where the guy on the Autobike is blowing by the guy on the regular bike as they go up a hill? That's what happens when I ride on the trail, only thing is I put a Marzocchi 888 on it for when I do drops, and some 8 inch rotors to stop the monster!

:roflol:

Sombeech · Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 11257 Location: The Rubbish Bin

I'm not sure. I'd like to see how durable they are.

If they had a 5000 mile guarantee :haha: maybe.

derstuka · Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 1275 Location: San Diego, CA

I would honestly try it out if it was durable. Look at Greg Minaar (South African) who is winning all those US downhill races with Honda's internal tranmission bike. Everybody questioned it, now it's doing good. Like I mentioned over on UMTNBIKING. GT has just released (or is close) an internal transmission downhill bike, but it still has a chain, just no external deraileurs

Fuzzy TheBikeGuy · Joined: 16 May 2005 Posts: 158 Location: Price, Utah

:roll: I first saw this "revolutionary" shaft drive crap in the mid-80's, and it was an old, lame idea THEN.

:blahblah: The real revolution is at least 5-10 years away, and it will be HYDRAULIC DRIVE. Infinite gear adjustment (instead of 9, 10, or ? speed) and ZERO maintainance. I'll bet a growler on it. :cheers:

Sombeech · Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 11257 Location: The Rubbish Bin

Fuzzy TheBikeGuy wrote: :roll: I first saw this "revolutionary" shaft drive crap in the mid-80's, and it was an old, lame idea THEN.

:blahblah: The real revolution is at least 5-10 years away, and it will be HYDRAULIC DRIVE. Infinite gear adjustment (instead of 9, 10, or ? speed) and ZERO maintainance. I'll bet a growler on it. :cheers:

Sounds cool. How will the hydraulic drive work? Kind of like a hydraulic pump and lines?

derstuka · Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 1275 Location: San Diego, CA

Hydraulic! That sounds messy! Yucky, but, a regular chain and deraileur setup isn't the cleanest either.

BTW, these new internal tranmissions that Honda, and Hayes are prototyping are just basically a deraileur in a box, shielded from all the mud and grime. However, I guess you can shift easily at anytime no matter if you under power or not...so they say!

crazy horse · Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:50 pm Post subject:

I saw somthing, don't remember where exactly, about some Japanese company that had built a working prototype of a hydro derailuer. Thing was clunky and huge, and I sure wouldn't want to put it on my bike, but it'll be interesting to see where things go. As for the internal drive, i think its kinda a cool idea, but not cool enough to spark a revolution of the way we think of bikes.

live2ride · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 1064 Location: Riding my bike

Come on this crap comes and goes, just people looking to make life easier so they can get even fatter and still go riding, chains kick ass, especially when they get stuck around the bottom bracket and have a little chain suck!! Why not just ride a motorcycle???

Fuzzy TheBikeGuy · Joined: 16 May 2005 Posts: 158 Location: Price, Utah

Sombeech wrote:
Sounds cool. How will the hydraulic drive work? Kind of like a hydraulic pump and lines?

The one viable prototype I've seen was a hydro-pump at the cranks and a rear hub roughly based on an Allison automatic transmission. It was ugly and heavy, but it WAS a 1st prototype and actually worked quite well. It had a thumb-shifter on the bars to adjust SOMETHING in the rear hub. It was a little over my head, just being a lowly Bike Guy, and the inventor-guy wasn't giving away his secrets, but the C'dale Gemini it was on climbed like a goat. :eek2:

When you guys comin' ridin'?

live2ride · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 1064 Location: Riding my bike

Aug 20th for the riding right????