Are Chainless Digital Drive Bicycles The Future of Cycling?

I might be wrong... but I think this is the FIRST video explaining digital drive bicycles on YouTube!! How cool is that?! 😎

I need to point out that not everything that involves electricity is “digital”. This is an ELECTRIC drivetrain.

What a great concept~ You can get double the cardio for half the distance traveled!

could be a vice versa promo vid: "now we can use chain drives!- they have almost double the efficency than our regular digital(actually not digital) drives. They are lighter, cheaper, easier to manufacture and everybody can repair them themselves and you will NEVER have to charge them!.... what a time to be alive!!"

I LOVE the idea of a bicycle that becomes entirely useless when the motor dies. It's such a neat novelty~

I'm working on a far better breakthrough in bicycles: A hand crank, attached to a generator, that charges a battery, that powers an electric burner, that boils water to produce steam, that is channeled into a turbine, that spins a generator, that charges up a battery, that powers a light, that shines on a greenhouse, that grows lettuce, that's fed to rabbits, that run on large hamster wheels, that are mounted on the rear rack, and connected to your rear hub via belt drive. There's a basket on the front of the bike that holds the lettuce that you feed to the rabbits as you cruise along. It's not quite as efficient as a chain drive, but you don't have to worry about grease.

Given how inefficient the drivetrain is, you might as well skip the pedals and call it a motorcycle! The pedaling is just to qualify as a pedelec for legal purposes, while the battery and motor does almost all the work.

Another benefit: AWD bike with traction control (for commute in slippery snowy conditions). Also front and rear motors may be optimized for different speed/torque.

This could be a great solution as a regen/Top-up for an E-Bike, but not as a replacement for a direct drive (like a chain or belt) on a regular bicycle. The one big feature missing from E-Bikes is regen braking. This at least would give you the option to add a few watt/Hours to the battery on easy sections of a ride.

The electrical loss is so much greater here and would be super underpowered compared to the pedaling being done

Because of weight and simplicity, I think a basic pedal assist system is going to be the best choice for a while.

love my shiny chain, the chain sound, the shifting sound. Bring a chain break and you will always get home if the rear derailleur gets wrecked...shorten the chain and make a single gear to ride home. I also still drive a 5 spd car ...love it, its perfect. Whats the cost of fixing a digital drive , whats the reliability? Can I fix it myself out on the road ? Exactly...no thanks.

I truly appreciate this thorough review of the digital drivetrain for bicycles. What I like most is the fact that when pedaling I would be able to keep the cadence the same regardless of terrain. Also regenerative breaking and recouperation of energy when going downhill is awesome.

Great video! I built my first digital drive trike in 1986 and dismissed it because it only showed about 50% efficiency. Things haven't changed too much.

Omg it would be incredibly hard to drive such a bike with so much energy loss! Imagine how much more pleasant it would be to switch back to a normal bike and immediately discover your strength can propel you so much faster and easier! I can't see why anyone would accept lower energy efficiency. Battery power assist is what people want.

Fascinating and well made video! Seriously cool....but don't think you slipped that groaner past us at the 4:56 mark. HARRR!!

I could totally see this style of drive train replacing chain drives on E-bikes. You could even ad a sturdy kickstand and convert it to an exercise bike to charge the battery.

Absolutely greatest way to complicate things unnecessarily, and to hike up the bicycle prices!

The use of the word "digital" is 100% wrong in this context. What you mean is electrical.

you can get the efficiency up significantly by using Higher RPM motors and generators, this would require changes in gearing that would present another set of problems thou.