The Orbit Drive promises an ebike transmission, built into the motor housing, that lasts for thousands of miles without maintenance, boosts efficiency and range, allows regenerative braking, and comes out lighter than most ebike drive systems.
The individual gears emulate a continuously variable transmission, but as a step function instead of a discontinuous function, so there’s the space in between two consecutive gears that’s more optimal than either surrounding gear for most speeds/inclines/acceleration/etc., but inaccessible.
Both rear cassettes and internal gear hubs these days can come with a ridiculous fuck-ton of gears (they literally go up to eleven!*). And that’s before you add a front derailleur and multiply by three! How many more ratios in between those do you need?!
(*Or more, now. The ridiculousness has surpassed Spinal Tap!)
I bike a lot and the traditional gear systems, while they’re pretty rock solid, easy enough to service, etc., definitely leave a little room for improvement. When you’re exerting a ton of force uphill and have to shift, for example, it can be a total disaster (especially if your derailleur stops are bad and your chain slips, which I’m dealing with this moment after a rebuild).
Both rear cassettes and internal gear hubs these days can come with a ridiculous fuck-ton of gears (they literally go up to eleven!*). And that’s before you add a front derailleur and multiply by three! How many more ratios in between those do you need?!
(*Or more, now. The ridiculousness has surpassed Spinal Tap!)
I bike a lot and the traditional gear systems, while they’re pretty rock solid, easy enough to service, etc., definitely leave a little room for improvement. When you’re exerting a ton of force uphill and have to shift, for example, it can be a total disaster (especially if your derailleur stops are bad and your chain slips, which I’m dealing with this moment after a rebuild).