yay, a picture of a self adjusting steel "vee belt"
now consider all those little plates, sliding past each other, several hundred times a second...
those lovely steel bands, flexing several hundreds times a second, bending, rubbing, fatiguing...
now consider a bit of grit getting in between what has to be extra thin steel to be flexible...
not much material left to grind away.
nice little chunks of metal that when worn out finally become small razor like projectiles...
whats keeping the two sets of steel bands lined up?
are they continuous? or is it a big long spiral strip?
i know im changing bandsaw blades after only a few hours...they run slow, dont flex much...but always break at the weld. never go blunt. break at the weld first.
so...you gunna enclose this steel belt in an oil bath? sealed you know?
then... do these plates just grip the sides of a pulley? so its got hardened faces so they dont wear out into notches? has really heavy duty bearings to take both radial and thrust loads?
seriously heavy duty bearings.... like truck-hub size taper rollers....
or are they toothed? makes sense, the small link plates simply spread apart and come together as required... cus the teeth are these radial things like bevel gears...(which are known to be the hardest gear of all to cut, even compared to hypoids, and they get harder as the faces get closer to a flat surface.)
sliding along those steel bands. rocking., pivoting on those steel bands. clicking clacking and grinding away on each other on those steel bands.
im not quite sure what rocks them over and spreads them out so they engage with the teeth smoothly?
looks like a design that wont really get past a cad drawing. is that really a n 11 year old image? so wheres the actual product?
and all of this on an electric drive system that doesnt require a gearbox at all. other than a suitable reduction.
(admittedly two or three speeds is nice, and the brammo does have a 6-speed, unlike any other production electric motorcycle)
seriously, if you want decent gears on an electric...search the forum. someone posted good plans for a two speed box thats very easy to copy/change ratios on way back...