Future of Drivetrains, No Gears, No Chain.

[PedalUma]

No chain, no belt to maintain. No gears. All the feel and with regen.

 

[6zfshdb]

No chain, no belt to maintain. No gears. All the feel and with regen.

Interesting idea but how do you get home with a dead battery or electrical failure? With a chain, at least you could pedal the bike back.

 

[PedalUma]

Interesting idea but how do you get home with a dead battery or electrical failure? With a chain, at least you could pedal the bike back.

The thing is all you need to do is pedal the generator with a spent battery. Because you are always pedaling, the battery does not go flat. The battery is not even really needed, because it acts only as a reservoir. Electrical failure would only be due to something like sabotage.

 

[Chargeride]

How much energy loss do you want?

Yes.

 

[6zfshdb]

I think that's the theory, but I find it hard to believe a generator that small with it's inherent efficiency losses can create enough wattage to power the bike on it own. I suppose you could remain stationary and crank the generator to charge the battery though.

I suspect that generator simply provides power to a controller, similar to the way a torque or cadence sensor operates. I'd have to see a wiring diagram to be sure.

 

[RunForTheHills]

The efficiency doesn't really matter, because the people who will buy it don't really want to pedal hard. They are interested in a moped. This Rivian ebike is actually getting a lot of interest (not from me, though):

 

[PedalUma]

How much energy loss do you want?

Yes.

There is energy loss with any drivetrain. Here you get re-gen and reverse.

 

[kevinmccune]

Interesting idea but how do you get home with a dead battery or electrical failure? With a chain, at least you could pedal the bike back.

would imagine most of the time it would be a push me,coast me thing I cant see myself pedaling a dead ebike up any kind of upgrade,found this out when I mistakenly ran my old full suspension bike out of juice. I like the idea of electric coupling,a lot of the "broasters" do too.

 

[stompandgo]

The efficiency doesn't really matter, because the people who will buy it don't really want to pedal hard. They are interested in a moped. This Rivian ebike is actually getting a lot of interest (not from me, though):

Rivian, the company, is fighting for survival.

 

[stompandgo]

Rivian lost $3.6B last year.

 

[Chargeride]

Early days, electric cars are what they are, two minutes of research will reveal their limitations and strengths.
Apart from the explodytoxicgassy bit they are of a mechanical simplicity that approaches an absolute.
All the problems are scale, can we charge 100K cars?
How about a million?
To make it work we have to hand our freedom to a spreadsheet, we need to use our washing machines when the grid says so.
Or we could ask ourselves why we always need to be somewhere else

 

[kevinmccune]

Interesting idea but how do you get home with a dead battery or electrical failure? With a chain, at least you could pedal the bike back.

let your fingers do the walking in the "yellow pages" ! call for help or just wing it,double time,after an ebike threw me twice I hit the supposed 9 mile "biue diamond trail" and hoofed it,got through a lot quicker then I could have imagined.

 

[kevinmccune]

The efficiency doesn't really matter, because the people who will buy it don't really want to pedal hard. They are interested in a moped. This Rivian ebike is actually getting a lot of interest (not from me, though):

wow like that helmet,OTH vados can give you virtual reality as well.

The efficiency doesn't really matter, because the people who will buy it don't really want to pedal hard. They are interested in a moped. This Rivian ebike is actually getting a lot of interest (not from me, though):

wonder how much the press secretary's nose job cost?( never seen such a perfect honker.)

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Early days, electric cars are what they are, two minutes of research will reveal their limitations and strengths.
Apart from the explodytoxicgassy bit they are of a mechanical simplicity that approaches an absolute.
All the problems are scale, can we charge 100K cars?
How about a million?
To make it work we have to hand our freedom to a spreadsheet, we need to use our washing machines when the grid says so.
Or we could ask ourselves why we always need to be somewhere else

I think the AI Ponzi scheme's need for power for these massive data centres is the real danger for overloading the grid. Like banks in 2008 they have to keep going bigger and bigger to keep the lie growing, not collapsing.

 

[kevinmccune]

Early days, electric cars are what they are, two minutes of research will reveal their limitations and strengths.
Apart from the explodytoxicgassy bit they are of a mechanical simplicity that approaches an absolute.
All the problems are scale, can we charge 100K cars?
How about a million?
To make it work we have to hand our freedom to a spreadsheet, we need to use our washing machines when the grid says so.
Or we could ask ourselves why we always need to be somewhere else

join the underground find a low rust 90's vehicle find the local appliance repair guy (or gal} and swear fealty. You would not believe how some of the "dyed in the wool" Republicans(little r) voted in the race for the state government because of race and now they are feeling the sting as gun ownership becomes less tenable.

 

[kevinmccune]

No chain, no belt to maintain. No gears. All the feel and with regen.

No chain to snag your beard !

 

[stompandgo]

I think the AI Ponzi scheme's need for power for these massive data centres is the real danger for overloading the grid. Like banks in 2008 they have to keep going bigger and bigger to keep the lie growing, not collapsing.

They have to make their own power. It's the only way it scales. China does it by building a coal plant in the neighborhood. That would never fly in most other countries.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

They have to make their own power. It's the only way it scales. China does it by building a coal plant in the neighborhood. That would never fly in most other countries.

I get a perverse kick out of using energy hungry AI to discuss energy hungry AI data centres power demands:

China is powering its rapidly expanding AI data centers primarily through a massive build-out of renewable energy sources like wind and solar, alongside innovative grid policies and efficiency measures. While coal remains part of the backup mix, renewables are increasingly prioritized to meet surging demand.

Key Strategies​

Beijing mandates that most new data centers use renewables, leveraging the "East Data West Computing" initiative to site facilities in western regions rich in wind, solar, and hydro resources. Clean energy covered about 80% of demand growth in 2024-2025, with policies enabling direct renewable transmission and "green power industrial parks" dedicated to data centers.

Innovations​

Underwater data centers off Hainan and Shanghai use seawater for cooling (saving up to 40% energy) and pair with offshore wind. Desert megaplexes in Xinjiang tap solar abundance despite remote locations. Data center consumption hit 140 billion kWh in 2024 (1.4% of national power), projected to quadruple by 2030-2035, but China's grid expansion—doubling U.S. output—handles it without major coal reliance.

In short China still uses a hell of a lot of coal, but renewables are vastly increasing last five years. China is the leader of solar technology & production for instance helping bring solar costs down by 90% over the last decade, while producing 80% of solar capacity - producing more year on year then the rest of the world combined.

 

[stompandgo]

What a chatbot spits out is dependent on how it was trained. It can easily be programmed to spit out propaganda, or refuse to give an answer that it doesn't want to or agree with. See Claude.

I have no doubt that China is adding renewables to the mix. It's a Communist nation that wouldn't think twice about putting a windmill in your back yard if they wanted to. AI is 24/7. Renewables are not. Storage technology does not scale, at least today.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

What a chatbot spits out is dependent on how it was trained. It can easily be programmed to spit out propaganda, or refuse to give an answer that it doesn't want to or agree with. See Claude.

I have no doubt that China is adding renewables to the mix. It's a Communist nation that wouldn't think twice about putting a windmill in your back yard if they wanted to. AI is 24/7. Renewables are not. Storage technology does not scale, at least today.

Completely agree on reliability of AI - this was Perplexity and testing it with say bike related questions where I know the answers does throw up some massive whoppers! But with China it's not all propaganda, It's well documented by now how far they are going with battery tech, solar energy and wind. Yes having the CCP driving it means they can avoid niceties like people's planning objections! But African countries also see an opportunity to ditch the high national costs of petrol (they pay through the nose for fuel, a massive part of GDP) and are pivoting to solar/wind + battery + EVs, and they have the climate and land for it, all backed by China in return for juicy infrastructure contracts and drilling/mining rights of course.

It's funny, though Trump's anti climate change agenda has short term decreased Americans push for EVs and renewables, yet ironically it looks like the Iran war clusterfuck is massively pushing countries towards renewables for energy independence. It was the petrol crises in the 70s (after yet another Middle East Israeli war, so many...) that gave Japanese car makers a breakthrough with their small efficient engines, these BYDs and Geelys etc are getting super cheap.