STORY
Once upon a time...
WHEN THE DREAMS COME TRUE...
MOVING TO THE NETHERLAND
A few years ago, my sister-in-law family moved to the Netherland and our family supported them as needed. Everything was going well except one element - the bicycle commuting with the traditional "omafiets".
THE IDEA FOR NEW BICYCLE TRANSMISSION!
The old (second hand) "omafiets" driven by my sister-in-law was OK, but with one problem - the internal 3 speed hub stacked at higher speed and the bike was extremely hard for her to drive.
Especially in the city with intensive start-stop, acceleration and small bridges passes.
The bike was inspected in the service shop, where they were not surprised of this common defect and offered to replace the whole rear drive. Good, but the cost was more than the price of the whole bike. Then the advice was simple - just drive it in this mode like everybody else do, even with the traditional single speed rear drive with coaster brake.
Then my daughter (our company design engine in the present) who was studying graphic design at that time declared that she'll find a solution. Everybody was laughing in a common disbelieve that she cannot "reinvent the wheel".
My sister-in-law was acquiesced that after a while the pain in the knees will pass, and she will be strong enough to drive like everybody else.
The case was almost forgotten when, after a few months of silence, my daughter returned with the idea:
The chain wheel at the bottom bracket to be replaced by a simple mechanism in which the driving chain wheel automatically, smoothly and steplessly is changing the transmission ratio (lever arms relation ratio) at active phase of the work cycle depending on the load, so that the pre-defined effort to be achieved without altering the geometry of the driving chain wheel. How? By sliding the chain wheel in the guiding base slots supported by a springs balance mechanism at defined load threshold.
So, the ACT-Drive invention was born!
TRANSMISSION DESIGN AND PATTENT
The idea was consulted with the patent specialist and after a thorough research he advised to apply for a patent (EU and International) which she did.
The name itself was registered as a trademark ACT-DRIVE where the abbreviation ACT stands for:
Automatic Cyclic Transmission
More technical details you can find on the page ACT-DRIVE.
