Thought some of you might be interested to know that belt drive bicycles are starting to gain traction in the commercial world. Like Harleys, bicycles with belt drives carry the following advantages over chain drives:
+ Almost zero maintenance drive train
+ Impervious to snow, salt, mud, dirt, and damage from inclement weather
+ Mechanically efficient
+ Light weight
Just for the hell of it, I spent a morning at a local bike shop testing stuff out, and at one point took a ride on the Trek Soho even though I'm looking for a different kind of bike. Much to my surprise, it has been reviewed at Knee Slider:
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2009/03/09/belt-drive-bicycles-trek-soho/I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this bicycle was reviewed in a motorcycle blog, because it feels just like the Bullet -- sit up and beg position, easy reaching, sloped back, low rise bars, neutral yet precise steering, very smooth ride despite the aluminum frame. It also has beautiful classic looks with the large fenders color matched to the frame (slate blue). It's really light, too, not that I care about weight. I couldn't wipe the smile from my face the whole time I was on it.
Overall I liked the belt drive system. It's really efficient, and the Shimano Nexus 8 speed internal hub provides a very good range of gear ratios (with a couple of jumps that are questionable). It also shifts surprisingly quickly at low speeds, and you can shift while stopped. The only drawback was that it sometimes wouldn't shift when I was cranking hard. I'd have to pressure back a little bit and that was a pain. I think the 8 speed Alfine hub is better with that, and the new 11 speed one is supposed to be an even bigger improvement.
Anyway, serious commuter bikes are starting to have more in common with motorcycles, like disc brakes. The Civia Bryant seems ideal in that it has both a belt drive and discs, but it's pretty expensive:
http://www.ecovelo.info/2010/01/03/short-term-road-test-civia-bryant/Jeff