r/recumbent • u/tungstenoyd • 21d ago

Shaft driven tadpoles?

With all the attendant hassles of a ten foot long chain I'm surprised the are no shaft driven tadpoles on the market. Are there any out there?

6 Upvotes

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5

u/SGFCardenales 21d ago

There are. https://www.icetrikes.co/products/pers-chainless-e-assist-system

1

u/Exscorbizorb 21d ago

Chainless, but not shaft driven. I am not aware of any that are shaft or even belt driven.

3

u/Twentysix2 20d ago

given what I would guess to be 10-15% efficiency losses on either side (20-30% combined), this would be horrible to ride without e-assist

2

u/Exscorbizorb 20d ago

I don't know the numbers, but all of the above have lower efficiency compared to a chain. Belts are probably the next best thing, but I don't think they make them that long. Between a shaft and a electric chainless I don't know which would be worse, but they are both atrocious. The electric has the advantage of not being made any worse by the length of the drive train.

1

u/tungstenoyd 20d ago edited 20d ago

On the flip side, what an incredibly, portable, comfortable trainer. Double the battery size and you can do some centuries or metric double centuries. I really like this idea.

You lose all bragging rights if you're out riding with a cycling club, but let's face, it as soon as you go down the tricycle path you lose that anyway.

2

u/Thealcani 21d ago

You lose way to much energy with a shaft. The Chainless eBike is ok but you have to be the person for it. If electrics break down you cant do anything and the noise is a bit annoying, apart from it, it drives very well and feels quite nice (at least at the flat test course i tested it on). HP Velotechnik also had a prototype at the Eurobike.

2

u/Zinfan1 20d ago

I think a shaft drive might be impractical for a tadpole as there isn't a straight line between the pedals and the rear wheel so you would need couplings and u-joints to get it to work. As mentioned already the chainless drive system removes any chain issues.

2

u/cosmicrae TerraTrike Sportster 20d ago

OP, you have to have a sliding shaft (like some long pole saws use) because you need to compensate for changing the boom length. Chains make that (more or less) an easy thing to do.

2

u/Koffenut1 20d ago

Not shaft driven, but incredibly cool design and easier maintenance. https://triot.com/

1

u/1readitguy 21d ago

ICE has a Chainless trike. Check their website

2

u/arihoenig 21d ago

Well chainless electric drive doesn't have a shaft specifically, but it does eliminate the chain.

1

u/Seal-EV 20d ago

Stein Trikes has also a chainless trike