I will be surprised to see how this makes it to production. As most motorcyclists know, shaft drive is a maintenance dream — having it on a bike will be a thing of beauty.
As a YT clip pointed out, there are side loads induced due to how the shaft output end mates with the unified 'cogset' that will require stiffening in the rear triangles of the frame. It also would tend to jump teeth under high power. So, even when production costs scale down, it may be never be a drop in replacement for the classic chain-and-sprocket.
(My bike has belt drive and internally geared hub [Alfine 8-speed], but my dream bike is gonna have a Rohloff—Hmmmmm.)
I would be interested to see if they could ditch the awkward rear cassette and replace it with a bottom bracket gearbox. That merged with the shaft drive would be really interesting. Although they are probably more worried about ounces than reliability since it's a time trial bike.
I would pay a lot of money to not have to constantly be fiddling/cleaning/lubricating my chain drive...
As a YT clip pointed out, there are side loads induced due to how the shaft output end mates with the unified 'cogset' that will require stiffening in the rear triangles of the frame. It also would tend to jump teeth under high power. So, even when production costs scale down, it may be never be a drop in replacement for the classic chain-and-sprocket.
(My bike has belt drive and internally geared hub [Alfine 8-speed], but my dream bike is gonna have a Rohloff—Hmmmmm.)