See VECTr in action!
On January 1, 2019, patent number 10,167,055 was issued for Variably Expanding Chain Transmission!
Watch the videos below to see VECTr in action! The first shows VECTr on a Trek MTB on a repair stand in the lab.
Here is VECTr on a brief ride around the neighborhood.
Comments
VECTr - Variably Expanding Chain Transmission 
This is so dumb.
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Thanks for your feedback. Do you have reasons for your opinion?
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Just a question, wouldn’t this shorten the life of the chainring? It looks like whether it is set to 24 or 44, you still are using the same number of teeth to pull the chain. I would think that would add to the strain on each individual tooth, shortening their life.
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Yes, it would be like always running on a 20t ring, but in 4 segments. So instead of 3 rings of say 44, 38 and 24 teeth, you would be using fewer teeth, all the time. The segments would have to be replaced more often than the three rings (or any one of them), but even 4 segments replaced at once probably would cost no more than any one (and less than all three) rings. Also, from the chain’s perspective, the wear would be less since it is running over fewer teeth overall.
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For wear on the chain, I think this would actually wear more than less. The strain that normally gets spread over 44 teeth (OK, not all 44 teeth, maybe 2/3 of them) would get spread over the reduced number of teeth shown here. That extra strain is going to wear away on the chain faster, not slower. Yes, there’s a certain amount of strain that is done to the chain walls themselves from running through the chainrings that will be avoided, but a chain on this setup, with the chainring mimicking a 44 tooth chainring, will wear faster than on a true 44 tooth chainring. Even taking into consideration the deflection and torsion on the chain because it gets pulled out of line by a derailleur, a chain with this setup will wear out faster.
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