It's not hard to find e-bikes with belt drives. Honestly, I think they'll take over the e-bikes market within 10 years or so (I think there are still some outstanding patents?). More expensive and slightly less efficient than a chain, but both of those are probably negligible for the context of e-bikes, and in exchange you never get grease on your pant leg, you never need to lube anything, you never need to worry about a derailleur needing to have its gears realigned or having the chain jump out (of course you could have an internally-geared chain bike).
Harley Davidson, among others, uses belts. Torque isn't the issue in the context of m/c final drive. Chains are a tad more efficient, which hp obsessed customers fuzz about.
I have a lectric and the build quality is terrible. Had to deal with:
- a bent frame out of the box
- a recall due to defective brakes
- lights not secured properly
- loose fender after less than 100km
- a derailleur that refuses to allow use of all gears- no matter how adjusted it is unable to use either the lowest or highest
Yep. I have a single speed e bike with a belt drive and internal motor in the back wheel. Use it for commuting round London. 0 maintenance. None of this over engineered Bosch shit. Cheap Chinese 250w motor in the back, belt drive, aluminium frame. These should take off, but so far the major bike manufacturers have overcomplicated the category - and the startup that made mine has gone under (analog motion)
The cycling industry and trends are based on processional racing and a chain/derailleur is going to maintain significantly more power transfer at that level than a belt drive or internally geared hub.
If Shimano/Sram cared about building top-shelf commuter drivetrains (Shimano has Alfine) they could easily purchase Gates or build a competing company.