Tag: shaft

June 13th – At my destination, a very unusual steed was parked in their shed: an Elegance electric bike. It has a 3 speed Shimano Inter-M rear hub, driven by a shaft drive (yes, shaft drive, so no chain), rear roller brake, front disc brake, a large battery on the back and a motor in the front hub. 

It was a heavy beast, and seemed to have both electric pedal assist, full motor drive and pedal only options. It’s a nice looking thing, but it was very heavy, and I wouldn’t want to pedal that far without electric drive…

The shaft drive is clever, but it’s a lot of faith to put into small gears with high efficiency losses and worrying wear rate.

Having said that, it’s a lot of innovative design for a shade off £700.

I don’t like e-bikes, but I can see the utility of this. Find out more about it here.

April 29th – A late afternoon escape found me spinning round Brownhills Common in a fruitless hunt for deer. I pottered on up to Engine Lane, and remembered the shaft located on a small mound by the old level crossing. Brick-lined, capped about six feet down with old railway sleepers, I think it must have been an air shaft for a nearby colliery. It’s not really wide enough to be a working shaft, and it’s termination at a considerable height above surrounding ground level suggests that the constructors wanted to avoid surface water draining down it. 

A conundrum indeed.