Reply to "anyone used a gear drive in a cleveland?"

FWIW, Let's look at the Physics of a gear drive. There is ONLY one Tooth making contact at any given moment with a single idle gear set-up, two teeth with a dual gear. A roller chain encircles at least half of the teeth on the sprockets. A gear drive has 'backlash'; and so does a chain, maybe more. A gear drive can NOT absorb shock, a Roller chain can and does. A roller chain does not stretch (a myth), it does wear-in and then out, as does a gear drive. A gear drive maintains a 'stricter' accuracy than a chain. 'Most' all the Pros use gear drives in drag racing where the forces are 100% acceleration.(not counting decceleration upon shutting down). Roadracers mostly use chain or belt drives, as the forces are all of acceleration and decceleration.(although, there may be a few who use gear drives, how successful have they been on the roadcourse?). Yes! The noise sounds cool! But could get "old" after a long drive of being 'trapped' in the cockpit with no relief. If you have read Gorans' reply, he discribes the noise as being 'a pain'. It is my opinion ONLY that with the Cam drive being so close behind ones' head, and the difficulty in replacing it; I recommend going with a "True Roller" Chain drive. Regards, Marlin.