The swiss bicycle manufacturer KATZ-Bikes has one objective: Maintenance Free Bicycles!
Here is the first concept for a maintenance free MTB.
The drivetrain consists out of a Rohloff Speedhub in combination with a completely capsuled chain drivetrain. The rear wheel can be removed without touching the chain. This is realized by a special couppling between the internal geared hub and the rear pinion gear. The rear pinion gear stay on the bike and is a part of the drivetrain.
The efficiency is pushed by the following details to a high level:
- capsuled drivetrain
- the chain has a wide overlapping on the chain wheel and the rear pinion by using to little guiding pinions. These two guiding pinions are on the untensioned side of the drivetrain with a low influence on the efficiency. The tensioned upper chainline has a straight effective direction!
- the chain will be tensioned by the two guiding pinions (like a derailleur).
There is a whole bundle of maintenance free details on this bike concerning other parts. A price is not defined but the bikes will be available next spring. Phil´s veloblog is also discussing the benefits of this concept.
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February 11, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Wow. I have just recently discovered the Rohloff and am an instant fan. This encapsulated chain in combination seems brilliant to me.
See my thoughts and some pics here, from an ex-pure roadie who started mountain biking again BECAUSE I craved a simpler drivetrain:
http://beautifulbokeh.typepad.com/beautiful_bokeh/2008/02/simplicity-from.html
http://beautifulbokeh.typepad.com/beautiful_bokeh/2008/02/rohloff-progres.html