Push a chain driven bike, then find a (two wheel drive only) shaft drive of about the same weight and push it. There is much less resistance from the shaft drive. Even with all its added weight and everything, maybe shafts are more efficient than chains??

 

Sure as hell a lot less upkeep on shaft driven ATV's.And more quiet too.

 

i think shaft drives are a great advancement in atv's, who knows maybee in the future sport quads might use some type of lightweight aluminum shaft drives.

 

I very much doubt it.

 

Yeah, I can't stand all the racket my chain makes, it's almost unbearable. lol

There is alot of variables that could have made the quad you pushed with the shaft easier than the chain driven one.

 

What made me think about this was pushing around our 250EX and Recon vs. our other bikes. The 250EX and the Blaster are close in weight, and the Recon and the 300EX & 400EX are close. Sure, there are a million variables that can come into play, like are the brakes on one bike dragging more than another, tires, etc.-but the differences were great enough that it caught my attention!! Try it yourselves.

 

Less energy is wasted transfering power from the engine to the drive wheels using a chain. This is not a hypothesis it is a well documented fact. The chain method also weighs less and these are two reasons that ALL racing-type atv's, dirt bikes, and road bikes use a chain rather than a shaft. Also important to this issue is the effect of translating power each way. In using a chain the weight of the machine is rocked back onto the rear wheel thus increasing traction. However, when shaft drive is implemented, the vehicle tends to stay flat with a lower percentage of machine weight being transferred over the rear wheel. Therefore, a less desirable handling characteristic results from shaft drive. Shaft drive, however, is much more user friendly (read: less maintainance) and therefore is the preferred choice when performance is not the utmost in importance for a given vehicle.

 

Whatever the source of friction pushing around your ATV's, the drive system's likely not a factor.

Changing the direction of rotation costs force to overcome friction; a chain drivetrain rotates all components in the same plane as the engine flywheel.

A shaft drive system (except for certain Hondas presently) rotates the plane of rotation once, flywheel to driveshaft (90 degrees), then, twice, driveshaft to ring gear (90 degrees again). Hondas with "transverse" engine mounting only rotate the power plane once, driveshaft to ring gear.

Like the man said, "Ain't no such thing as a free lunch." Shaft drives have their own limitations.

Diogenes