The frame requirements will kill this, if everything else that is awful about it doesn't.

Well they showed how it can shift, and is seems plausible.

And I understand the concern about torque/force getting concentrated on just 1-2 rollers vs the load-spreading of a chain. But I don't understand the notion in this thread that it's like this really confounding problem to material science and mechanical engineering. Humans aren't *that* strong, even with the leverage of a crank arm/pinion. And steel is really, really strong.

It's plausibly efficient. And I really like that it can be protected and kept clean, vs. chains which are always in the process of getting dirty when ridden.

I'm much more interested in this thing than the oversized pulley wheel stuff - or really anything else that CeramicSpeed does.

Might be 4-5 years, but I'm hoping it works out.

I have not seen a video of a system that even had pedals on it and was subject to the forces at play when someone rides a bike and the bike deflects under varying load.

I have also not seen a video that demonstrated shifting across the entire cassette (just one gear in the middle). And oh yeah the model with shifting was different from the one in all the pretty pictures.

It supposedly uses a motor but even that is about all they’ll say because they haven’t quite figured it out yet.

Exactly, there is no problem for steel to withstand our small legs strength even on a reduced contact point.There might be some wear problem for sure.
It also looks like it will cost a ton of money. Precision machining, electronics for shifting. CeramicSpeed being used to sell thing 10x their value, i expect them to market this thing above 5K. That said it won't be incredibly better than a regular drivetrain because a clean well lubed drivetrain is already very efficient, not much to win here. I expect the weight to be crazy low which might be a bit frustrating for events with a lot of climbing, mountain biking. It would sound a bit like an unfair advantage (remember the frustration of shimano pro XC racer when they had no good 1X option)

Plausible != good. Demonstrating it under no load at maybe 30 rpm doesn't convince me it's a good idea that would work at 1500W and 120 rpm.
Don't get me wrong, the shifting mechanism is ingenious, but horrendously complicated and at high risk of spectacular failure.


A back of the envelope calculation of the force an average rider standing on the cranks would put through a single deep groove ball bearing gives a number well in excess of the C0 (static load rating) of the size of bearings they're using. That's for bearings that have had decades of material science and manufacturing technology development. Steel is strong, sure, but the point loads will kill it. Humans don't output lots of power, but due to the low speeds we can output extremely high torque. A big chunk of steel would do it (as has been proven with bevel gear shaft drive bikes), but not a ball bearing system.

I disagree with the efficiency claims, there are still sliding faces in contact. And it would be just as feasible (and race-illegal) to put a cover over a derailleur chain system to protect it.

It's a marketing video to get people interested in Ceramic Speed again. While interesting, I doubt it will ever come to market. If it does, it will be on a custom frame that will be very expensive.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

100%. They are certainly getting value for money out of the gullible media

Yep.
Give it to me on a moutain bike for this coming autumn and winter.
I'm confident that in the part of the world I live I'll have turned the bike into a very expensive seized up hobby horse not far out of the car park.