FWD

Moosh:) said:

Can anyone explain how the Zox bikes can front wheel steer and have front wheel drive? I guess
that idler wheel cuts down the racket of misaligning roller chain. I wonder what the losses
would be.

Modern derailleur chain is pretty flexible stuff, hence turning a driven front wheel is not a big
problem. Moreover, you don't actually need to turn the bars through a vast angle when riding, so in
practice ZOXen And Their Ilk are very little different from a RWD recumbent bike to ride.

Those wherein the pedals and front wheel move as a unit are, however, Another Matter Entirely...

Dave Larrington - legslarry.crosswinds.netlegslarry.crosswinds.netOpen ↗
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Moosh:) said:

Can anyone explain how the Zox bikes can front wheel steer and have front wheel drive?

The all-wheel-drive bike (also a useless gimmick, I suspect) passes the drive via a shaft up the
downtube and down the headtube. The fork crown and headtube are not conventionally constructed;
instead a relatively small piece of metal outside the headtube connects the fork crown to the
handlebars. Of course this must be monstrously solid to combat the tendency of the handlebars to
bend backwards towards the saddle.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> Distortion Field!

David Damerell said:

Moosh:) said:

Can anyone explain how the Zox bikes can front wheel steer and have front wheel drive?

The all-wheel-drive bike (also a useless gimmick, I suspect) passes the drive via a shaft up the
downtube and down the headtube. The fork crown and headtube are not conventionally constructed;
instead a relatively small piece of metal outside the headtube connects the fork crown to the
handlebars. Of course this must be monstrously solid to combat the tendency of the handlebars to
bend backwards towards the saddle.

By shaft, I guess you mean a rotating drive shaft? This usually means some form of right angle
conversion via gearing. This is very lossy -- the huge advantage of shortish, aligned chain drive is
the excellent mechanical efficiency.

Moosh:) said:

Quoted message said:

The all-wheel-drive bike (also a useless gimmick, I suspect) passes the drive via a shaft up the
downtube and down the headtube.

By shaft, I guess you mean a rotating drive shaft? This usually means some form of right angle
conversion via gearing. This is very lossy -- the huge advantage of shortish, aligned chain drive
is the excellent mechanical efficiency.

Yes, indeed; this is one of many reasons why I suspect the AWD bike is a useless gimmick.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> Distortion Field!

In article said:

Moosh:) said:

Can anyone explain how the Zox bikes can front wheel steer and have front wheel drive?

The all-wheel-drive bike (also a useless gimmick, I suspect) passes the drive via a shaft up the
downtube and down the headtube.

The Zoxes (at least all the ones shown on zoxbikes.comzoxbikes.comOpen ↗) are chain drive front wheel drive
(not all wheel drive) recumbents.

stitesdesign.comhpv chameleon fwd.htmOpen ↗ has an alternative design that doesn't twist
chains (or at least did, it doesn't resolve for me right now, but it's in Google's cache).

Alan Braggins said:

The Zoxes (at least all the ones shown on zoxbikes.comzoxbikes.comOpen ↗) are chain drive front wheel
drive (not all wheel drive) recumbents.

<pedantic_git> The ZOX Duo is all wheel drive, but that's a tandem... </pedantic_git>

Dave Larrington - legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uklegslarry.beerdrinkers.co.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
bhpc.org.ukbhpc.org.ukOpen ↗
===========================================================

In article said:

Alan Braggins said:

The Zoxes (at least all the ones shown on zoxbikes.comzoxbikes.comOpen ↗) are chain drive front wheel
drive (not all wheel drive) recumbents.

<pedantic_git> The ZOX Duo is all wheel drive, but that's a tandem... </pedantic_git>

Damn, so it is, how did I miss that? (By only looking at where the front pedals were connected to, I
guess). It still doesn't "drive via a shaft up the downtube and down the headtube" like the gimmicky
all-wheel-drive bike David described though.

In message <[email hidden]>, Alan Braggins
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

In article said:

Alan Braggins said:

The Zoxes (at least all the ones shown on zoxbikes.comzoxbikes.comOpen ↗) are chain drive front wheel
drive (not all wheel drive) recumbents.

<pedantic_git> The ZOX Duo is all wheel drive, but that's a tandem... </pedantic_git>

Damn, so it is, how did I miss that? (By only looking at where the front pedals were connected to,
I guess). It still doesn't "drive via a shaft up the downtube and down the headtube" like the
gimmicky all-wheel-drive bike David described though.

Http://www.spicercycles.com/2wd.html

Would these be the ones? IIRC, one of the American MTB mags (Mountain Bike Action I think) rather
liked the Spicer drive for soft sandy conditions.

--
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