Piqued, lo and behold.
You’re welcome 
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Maybe I missed something, but I’m not impressed at all with the cost of those stringbikes. They seem to me at first glance like a neat prototype drivetrain stuck to a surprisingly cheap-and-heavy grade of frame and components for the price.
The bare bones single-speed “Stringie” above shows up when I click the link as costing EUR 1250. That’s more expensive than:
- This design-award-winning ‘luxury city bike’ with an 8-speed belt drive (just as quiet, clean and low-maintenance as the string), disc brakes, integrated lights, rack and fenders for more versatility and nicer quality everything.
- This 6.5kg, legit national-championship-level carbon track bike with aero carbon wheels.
- Three (!) benchmark decent inexpensive fixies, with (probably) a better cr-mo steel frame than the Stringie and roughly comparable parts. Looks nicer, too.
Maybe they’re inexpensive for kinetic sculptures or something, but as bikes ‘value’ isn’t a very convincing advantage.
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Yeah, I don’t really get it- why is the string arraignment better than a chain (or, I suppose a belt)?
That’s a lot of special parts- a full drivetrain, really- with what looks like just as many parts and as much complexity as a traditional drivetrain. So.
Maybe I’m missing the point?
It feels a little like when Shimano came out with Airlines shifting that was powered by compressed air. I never really got the point.
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Thank you! I’m out of likes right but take a 
!
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Supposedly it results in greater efficiency and makes for a more comfortable, easier ride because the drive train is on both sides of the bike… but I’m skeptical of that. I think it’s definitely more about how they look and the novelty factor than any real difference between how a normal bike or a stringbike would ride, price/paying a premium for the stringbike look seems to be the major difference.
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The Wired article goes on comparing them to Wankel engines and whatnot- and those are full of problems- apex seals, lack of torque, oil consumption, terrible efficiency, etc etc.
Drivetrain on both sides of the bike? Get out of here with that nonsense. In fact, I’ll call it like this: this string drivetrain solves a problem that didn’t exist and creates all sorts of new problems in the process.
A waste.
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Chain drives seem to be very, very efficient already. Maybe there’s a reason it’s still the standard after over a hundred years of inventors trying, and failing, to convince the world to switch to some chainless system or another.
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Exactly. I mean, I like belt drives ok- they’re quiet and clean and at least somewhat compatible with traditional frames etc etc, but they aren’t intrinsically better than a chain.
And you’re stuck with IGH if you want more than one gear. So there’s that.
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Plus, if your chain breaks, you can fix it on the side of the road in a couple of minutes.
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Apparently I live two blocks from a mental health nonprofit / community bike workshop that’s going to be holding a sale this saturday. Given that I’m someone who knows very little bikes, do y’all have any advice about what to look for or avoid in a refurbished bike?
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Aluminum rims (as opposed to steel).
Three-piece cranks (as opposed to one-piece)
“Bike store” brand (Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, etc) as opposed to “Target/Walmart” brands (Huffy, Kent, Schwinn, Mongoose, etc).
Brand name components (Shimano or GripShift/Sram)
It’s harder than you’d think at some level, as shitty makers keep copying some of the more noticeable “good bike” identifiers. Disc brakes, for example, were once an indicator of high end bikes, and now are found on terrible puppy chow bikes too.
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Alright, I’ve now done enough research that I could identify a 3 piece crank, and I might (maybe) be able to tell aluminum rims from steel (one person, somewhere online, suggests that it’s easy to distinguish the two by licking the rims, and option of which I do not plan to avail myself.
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Um… instead of licking the rims, how about a magnet?
Ah! I just thought of another one: presta valve inner tubes vs. schrader valves.
Presta is good, schrader is… less good. Generally speaking.
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Frankly, your best choice would be having a bike nerd friend come along. Second best would be to inexpensively hire a friendly bike mechanic to play the same role.
Or just take some pictures and post them here. We’ll do.
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also, don’t get a cottered crank, i.e. a 3 piece with the arms held in with a cotter pin. these were the original 3-piece crank design that got phased out completely in the 80s I think. so if it’s a really old bike it may be cottered.
make sure the frame fits you.
test ride them if you can. get your saddle height in the ballpark beforehand, this also is a check to make sure the seatpost isn’t frozen in the frame. so if you have a set of hex wrenches (aka allen keys) 4,5,6mm and maybe a crescent wrench for old bikes, bring 'em.
physically lift all the ones you’re thinking about, consider the weight.
shift levers on the stem, “turkey” (wing) levers on the brakes aka “suicide levers” and centerpull brake calipers are all indicators of a low-quality 70s/80s bike-boom era bike. maybe not a deal-breaker but a bike without these things is a better choice
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One of my favourite Steve Jobs things.
They have impressive physics behind them.
I truly think it is one of our finest inventions. A racer’s speed with a walker’s effort. So elegant, so efficient!
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Counter steering is both crazy confusing and cool but not really noticeable on a bicycle compared to a motorcycle.
I have a Cannondale with Shimano parts from the mid-1980s that had everyone in the bike store drooling when I brought it in to do a proper overhaul. It has everything you just listed!
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Not to be confused with the “intterupter” type levers that work by pushing on the cable housing. These get used a lot on cyclocross bikes, and are actually pretty darn effective.
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