Hey Hutch, thanks for the pointer to the Ridley's. I'd never seen them before, and went to their site to check them out. Pretty cool looking stuff, and actually along some ideas I was chewing on a while back.
I'm not to crazy about the looks of Ridley's 90º V-Twin, but the 90º does have a natural lesser vibration than the 45º like a Harley (and most of the modern-come-lately's).
The CVT (Constant Velocity Transmission) tranny isn't a new deal either, as you pointed out, they've used them in snowmobiles for a long time. But being south of most the snow keeps me from knowing squat about snowmobiles!
But I have seen them in over-sized mini bikes and mini-choppers up to 10hp or so. They use a little version called a Torq-a-verter (sp?) Same principal: Two V-drive pullies that change ratio at a proportional scale, and a wicked strong V-belt. They are even in cars now, like the new Dodge Caliber. Pretty good idea, and a great setup IMO, but I don't know if I can give up the habit of selecting my own gear for a given situation.
I'll tell you the truth though, I don't know why those Ridley cycles should be so expensive, other than the custom work; because that CVT tranny should be stone-age simple, and cheap, to build compared to the innards of a typical gear and clutch drive system.
Still, they are making some nice looking stuff. Seems there is a dealer within 20 miles of me. I might have to go have a sit-down with someone and see what their deal is... If nothing else, just to solve my curiosity.
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