Over the years the power delivery to the rear wheel system of motorcycles has developed a lot. Earlier we only used to have chain drives, and then we also saw belt drives and then even Shaft Drives arrive to the scene. We have already covered an article before comparing the three methods of power delivery, but it was important to get our readers informed about the chain and belt drives by pitching them against one another since they are the most widely used methods today. So here is an in detail comparison about Chain Drives and Belt Drives in motorcycles.
Chain Drives:
Chain drive effectively uses sprockets to transmit power through the chain. The basic functioning of it can be seen very well in any bicycle. Chain drives are so widely used because do they have a lot of advantages over belt drives and shaft drives. The foremost one being that chain drives are cheap and easy to maintain. The biggest point though is that being made of metal; they are able to handle a lot of stress as compared to other transmission types which makes them ideal to be used in high power applications like even superbikes. Also adding the fact that they can easily be tweaked as required by increasing its size or decreasing by adding or removing the linkages is great.
Belt Drives:
They are currently present only in the cruiser segment and some superbikes like the Erik Buell ones. Belt drives are in fact better than chain drives because they are easy flexing which means there is no need of providing all the bushings to the chain and also no worries about all the lubrication as well. Plus belt drives are a lot silent and do not have any operational noise. The only thing with belt drives though is that they are not practical in terms of quick gear shifting applications since they are not that great stress managing entity. Even though EBR uses them in their sports bikes, it is still not all that practical. Plus they also need the provision of a Secondary Drive mode while the chain drive can operate out of the primary drive mode itself.
By: Pratik Patole
Chain Drives:Chain drive effectively uses sprockets to transmit power through the chain. The basic functioning of it can be seen very well in any bicycle. Chain drives are so widely used because do they have a lot of advantages over belt drives and shaft drives. The foremost one being that chain drives are cheap and easy to maintain. The biggest point though is that being made of metal; they are able to handle a lot of stress as compared to other transmission types which makes them ideal to be used in high power applications like even superbikes. Also adding the fact that they can easily be tweaked as required by increasing its size or decreasing by adding or removing the linkages is great.
Advantages of Chain Drive:
1. Cheap cost
2. Easy to operate
3. Can handle huge stress
4. Light weight
5. Compact assembly
6. High transmission efficiency
7. Can operate under extreme conditions
Disadvantages of Chain Drive:
1. Noisy operation
2. Required constant lubing and maintenance
3. Issues with sudden snapping
4. Not completely corrosion resistant
1. Cheap cost
2. Easy to operate
3. Can handle huge stress
4. Light weight
5. Compact assembly
6. High transmission efficiency
7. Can operate under extreme conditions
Disadvantages of Chain Drive:
1. Noisy operation
2. Required constant lubing and maintenance
3. Issues with sudden snapping
4. Not completely corrosion resistant
Belt Drives:They are currently present only in the cruiser segment and some superbikes like the Erik Buell ones. Belt drives are in fact better than chain drives because they are easy flexing which means there is no need of providing all the bushings to the chain and also no worries about all the lubrication as well. Plus belt drives are a lot silent and do not have any operational noise. The only thing with belt drives though is that they are not practical in terms of quick gear shifting applications since they are not that great stress managing entity. Even though EBR uses them in their sports bikes, it is still not all that practical. Plus they also need the provision of a Secondary Drive mode while the chain drive can operate out of the primary drive mode itself.
Advantages of Belt Drive:
1. Silent operation
2. Almost zero maintenance
3. Have shock absorption capability
4. Longer life
5. Highly efficient, but only at capacity levels
Disadvantages of Belt Drive:
1. There are slippage issues
2. Cannot operate in extreme conditions
3. Limited power delivery
So these are the advantages and disadvantages of both types of drive systems and we can surely conclude from this that the Chain Drive does have that edge over belt drives even though they are better than chain drives in many cases. This can easily be seen by the fact that chain drives are being used in over 90 percent of the bikes running on the road today.1. Silent operation
2. Almost zero maintenance
3. Have shock absorption capability
4. Longer life
5. Highly efficient, but only at capacity levels
Disadvantages of Belt Drive:
1. There are slippage issues
2. Cannot operate in extreme conditions
3. Limited power delivery
By: Pratik Patole