DENVER (BRAIN) — Gates Corporation is looking to the international share bike and industrial/commercial bike market for sales growth of its belt drive systems.
The company worked with NuVinci and Mobia bikes on a new commercial bike that will be shown at the Taipei Cycle Show in Taiwan next week. Gates' Carbon Drive belt also is being used on Baicycle share bikes, which are used in several cities in China. Gates belts already are in use on the Gotcha Bike program on several U.S. college campuses and the GoBike electric bike share programs in Denmark and Norway.
"Gates Carbon Drive has become popular on urban bicycles in Europe due to its clean, simple and grease-free qualities, and now we are excited to bring these advantages to the Chinese bike share market," said Todd Sellden, Gates' director of sales for Carbon Drive. "The Gates system lowers the manpower required for maintenance, eliminates rust and greasy lubrication, and it is also lighter and faster than the heavy and sluggish shaft drives used on some bike share bicycles."
The Mobia bike on display in Taipei features a new N330fTM groupset from Fallbrook Technology's NuVinci Cycling, along with a Gates CDX belt and never-flat Titec tires and a Mobia aluminum frame. It was designed for the commercial bike fleet market sector.
David Hancock, the managing director of Fallbrook Technology's bike division's, said, “The explosion in the number of bike share and corporate and campus bike fleet programs worldwide shows the growing global desire to use bikes as a transportation alternative to passenger vehicles and reduce congestion in increasingly crowded cities. Unfortunately, many of the first-generation bike fleets used off-the-shelf, low-cost components that cause problems for fleet operators and their mechanics.”
The N330f drivetrain was designed to be durable and offer a 330 percent gear range. It's rated for a 200 kg (441 pounds) maximum vehicle weight.
Representatives from Gates, NuVinci and Mobia will present the bike to journalists and potential customers at the Gates Carbon Drive booth (4F-M0828) at the Taipei show, March 22-25.
