Check it out, boys and girls. Trek is bringing out a belt-driven bike. Someday we may say goodbye to our greasy chains:
If you’ve ever been riding down the street and had your pants cuff ripped asunder, there may be a revolution at hand.
Trek Bicycle is part of a movement to bury the finger-pinching, pants-munching, rust-prone sprocket and chain, and usher in an era of belt-driven bikes that might have the inventors of the self-propelled transportation Schwinning in their graves.
Wisconsin-based Trek is introducing two models this holiday season that are chainless, instead using technology most often found in things like motorcycles and snowmobiles. While some smaller custom bike makers have used them before, Trek is the first to use the technology for mass-produced bicycles.
I’ll admit I am conflicted about this. I actually enjoy the maintenance aspect of owning a bike. The sheer fact that it’s something I CAN do, a machine I can maintain and don’t have to pay a mechanic $50/hr to do for me fills me with a certain satisfaction. That’s part of the joy of owning a bike to me. Then again, if I ever actually own one of these new-fangled contraptions, who knows? I may love it. I guess time will tell, and I’m not likely to be able to buy one anytime soon.
Here’s a link to the Soho and the District on Trek’s Web site. You can mouse over and zoom in on the belt-drive. Whaddya think?
2 responses so far ↓
Les // December 4, 2008 at 5:47 am |
I dunno. It just sounds …… well… it sounds wrong. Chains are part of what makes a bike. Like gears, sprockets and frames.
IMHO
Digital Dame // December 4, 2008 at 9:11 am |
Hiya Les!
Yeah, that’s kind of what I thought, too. But who knows, maybe someday our grandchildren will look back and say “How quaint, they used to use metal chains.”