India Rose, Kirks, thanks for your suggestions! I am familiar with Triflow; we used it on some scientific instruments where I worked years ago. But I had not thought about using it on a bike; I will try it! I think it's loaded with Teflon and graphite powders; they should be good for cold weather.
I think about how the best engineering minds in the world have devoted so much effort to making motor vehicles, aircraft, and weaponry as astonishingly reliable and robust as they are under all kinds of extreme environments. In this day and age no automobile company would dare to market a vehicle with an open chain drive! Much less vehicles which require 1/10th the frequency of adjusting, cleaning, fiddling, and replacement of "consumables" (chains, brake pads, cables, etc.) as bicycles. Dear President Obama: Instead of bailing out the car companies, how about spending a few stimulus dollars on a "Man on the Moon" project to design and bring to market a PRACTICAL, affordable, lightweight, year-round, virtually maintenance-free drive system for that most efficient of all transportation machines - the bicycle. A totally-enclosed, modular, sealed transmission and shaft drive which approaches the efficiency of a chain/derailleur; one which requires adjustment and lubrication no more often than, say, once every four years. (As a mechanical engineer, I can assure you that this is entirely feasible.) The people engaged in the project could pretend that ordinary people getting on their bikes and going where they need to go - without any #...@#!! fiddling or f**king around - is as IMPORTANT AS GOING TO THE MOON. Duh. Oh well.maybe the Trek drive belt plus enclosed hub gearboxes will approach this level of.not perfection, but ADEQUACY. However, I have a hunch that the Trek belt will be susceptible to chunks of ice getting caught in the teeth and rupturing it. Hans Noeldner
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
