Overview of Shaft Drives for Bicycles

I hate chain maintenance. I hated it with my motorcycle, and I hate it with my bicycle. You have to clean and lube the chain on regular intervals, and with the motorcycle you had to adjust the rear wheel as the chain stretched, but at least it had sealed bearings so you were mainly cleaning the outside to cut down on wear of the rubber seals. Bicycle chains you just replace once they hit the service limit for stretching. But with both you also have to replace the sprockets, chainrings, and cassettes as they reach their service limit too. And I just had to put a complete new drive train on my bicycle about to hit 100 miles for its first chain cleaning and lube. But the reason chains are used so heavily is they’re cheaper, lighter and the most efficient. Consequently, I really wish when I bought a motorcycle I would have gotten one with shaft drive like the Yamaha sport tourer, though I had a lot of fun with my Kawasaki ZX-6R. So below is a great overview of where shaft drives are with bicycles along with a promising future version being actively developed. And they also hit on the belt drives available with an overview of efficiency losses. If not raptured soon, perhaps I can finally get away from chain maintenance.