Toothed Belt Drives

Toothed belt drives for power transmission is not a new concept. They are currently used on some of the newer Harley Davidson motorcycles. I was introduced to belt drives by Dan Sodomsky of eCycle, who first developed them for bicycles, and later adapted them for use on the fully electric and hybrid (diesel) electric sport motorcycles that he is developing at eCycle. The following photograph shows myself on the Grasshopper 5 and Dan on his prototype electric motorcycle. Another photograph shows the belt drives of both the Grasshopper 5 and the eCycle electric motorcycle for comparison. Both belts are Gates Polychain belts with an 8 mm pitch.