Belt-driven bicycle

The fork ends are fixed but there is a separate tensioner pulley, which changes the travel distance of the belt.

When his project was complete, Sanders chose entrepreneur and former Greg Norman manager James Marshall and a Glasgow manufacturer to turn his award-winning design into a product.

iXi bicycles, distributed in the United States by Delta Cycle Corporation, followed in 2004 with a compact design that, like Strida, featured a belt drive.

Other folding-bike manufacturers that have implemented a belt drive include U.S. company Bike Friday and Netherlands-based Bernds.

Lightweight, patent-pending sprockets have mud ports, openings under each tooth, which work to slough off debris.

In 2009, Wayne Lumpkin, owner of Spot Brand and best known as the founder of Avid, designed a belt system called CenterTrack.

It is also lighter, 20% stronger due to a wider 11mm belt, yet has narrower pulleys, making packaging with the latest generation of internally geared hubs much easier.

In 2010, Daimler introduced the Smart eBike, a power-electric hybrid bicycle featuring Gates Carbon drive-belt system.

[15] ContiTech eventually switched to carbon belts for bicycle use, citing issues with traction using aramid fibers.

The possibilities for belt-driven bicycles are increasing as manufacturers of internal hub gears (gears inside the rear hub, which allow riders of belt-driven bicycles to shift easily) introduce new designs such as the Shimano Alfine 11 and Fallbrook Technologies's NuVinci.