Happy Valley
Active Member
Riding in the wet
I've been forced to ride in the wet this summer. Steel on rubber is the problem, regardless of who makes them, for the same reason you might spray a bit on a tire bead to ease it on a rim or under handlebar grips to remove them or why steel wheels slip when wet with rim brakes.
In the wet I've found polymer rollers a tad better, wooden rollers better still and the aggregate stone rollers work very well but need to be removed quickly at the time road surfaces dry to prevent excessive tire wear.
When the road is dry, as far as friction drives in general eating tires with rollers other than aggregate, for me it's a non-issue. Most of the problems in that regard I've found come from incorrect mounting alignment IE not maintaining the drive spindle 90 degrees to the plane of the wheel and exactly paralleled to the axle. I've found proper tire inflation is also critical to good roller deflection and this will vary to some degree from one brand tire to the next. Of course this all implies using smooth tread street tires and not any type of aggressive off-road tread. I've found the inadequate U bracket on some kits to be much more of an issue because of torsional flex and thus not maintaining proper spindle alignment
I have zero problem locking down a friction drive assembly on the wheel with quick release skewer. They more than adequately demonstrate their ability to hold by the fact that I can easily over-deflect the amount of spindle down pressure on a tire until it affects engine performance and it will hold there until readjusted. These are after all the same devices that that hold my seat post in place and my wheels on. IMO If I had to fore go the utility of the quick release on a friction drive and have to use wrenches I would rethink it altogether. For me the QR skewer aspect is part of the genius behind the system, allowing no-drag freewheeling in an instant and turn it into a normal pedaling bicycle. The only thing better is shift on the fly.
All said friction drive has many attributes I like as long as it's dry but if I lived in a rainy climate (like I seem to be doing now lol) I would be looking elsewhere for reliability.
I've been forced to ride in the wet this summer. Steel on rubber is the problem, regardless of who makes them, for the same reason you might spray a bit on a tire bead to ease it on a rim or under handlebar grips to remove them or why steel wheels slip when wet with rim brakes.
In the wet I've found polymer rollers a tad better, wooden rollers better still and the aggregate stone rollers work very well but need to be removed quickly at the time road surfaces dry to prevent excessive tire wear.
When the road is dry, as far as friction drives in general eating tires with rollers other than aggregate, for me it's a non-issue. Most of the problems in that regard I've found come from incorrect mounting alignment IE not maintaining the drive spindle 90 degrees to the plane of the wheel and exactly paralleled to the axle. I've found proper tire inflation is also critical to good roller deflection and this will vary to some degree from one brand tire to the next. Of course this all implies using smooth tread street tires and not any type of aggressive off-road tread. I've found the inadequate U bracket on some kits to be much more of an issue because of torsional flex and thus not maintaining proper spindle alignment
I have zero problem locking down a friction drive assembly on the wheel with quick release skewer. They more than adequately demonstrate their ability to hold by the fact that I can easily over-deflect the amount of spindle down pressure on a tire until it affects engine performance and it will hold there until readjusted. These are after all the same devices that that hold my seat post in place and my wheels on. IMO If I had to fore go the utility of the quick release on a friction drive and have to use wrenches I would rethink it altogether. For me the QR skewer aspect is part of the genius behind the system, allowing no-drag freewheeling in an instant and turn it into a normal pedaling bicycle. The only thing better is shift on the fly.
All said friction drive has many attributes I like as long as it's dry but if I lived in a rainy climate (like I seem to be doing now lol) I would be looking elsewhere for reliability.
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