The SuperBeast Freedom DRV gear-driven system is available for DIY. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one and do one of the first reviews. I put 750 miles on a total of 2 SuperBeasts, so I figure I would drop this here to let folks know about the Freedom DRV.
Why not make the gears steel so they don’t break?
I pushed for steel, too. Theoretically, the nylon should have worked fine, but I had my doubts from the beginning. Part of the delay was manufacturing new gears out of acetal. Acetal is quite strong and holding up great. I think they went with nylon originally to minimize noise.
I’ve broken multiple acetal gears from multiple manufacturers.
It’s good if reducing cost is your goal and maybe for noise reduction as well, but if you want functionality and durability, steel is the clear choice.
300 miles on the acetal gears so far. I’ll update here and in the YT comments if they ever have problems.
I heard someone jumped off a bridge and didn’t die.
Bridge jumping must be safe.
Seriously though, a $1200 drive and there’s not enough meat on the bone to make the gears out of steel? I bet folks would be more than willing to pay the extra $10 or whatever to have real steel gears.
Correction RE the recommendation for WD-40: SuperBeast recommends WD-40 Lithium spray: https://www.amazon.com/Lubriplate-293-L0152-063-Gear-Shield-Grease/dp/B017S9SR78/
I’m going to go with this stuff recommended by another rider: