[tbabej]

Thanks for the response!

Definitely understand where you're coming from. I'm excited to see how well can Helix make the pedal assist with rear wheel motor work. What I like in particular is that the setup will be more upgradeable than most mid-drive builds.

With respect to the belt drive, glad to hear that's still a possibility (albeit not a priority, which is fine). This is just a single data point, but if there was a Alfine 11 option with a belt, I'd pull the trigger and buy one right now. Well, perhaps I'd wait for the rear rack and the luggage case that I understand are in the works, those are killer accessories.

For me personally, the weight is less of a concern, at least in the vicinity of the low numbers where current helix builds are. To illustrate, my current 20 inch folder is about 15kg (belt+alfine 11) and I find that quite manageable.

In any case, keep rocking on, I hope you guys succeed - it's exciting to see such novel bike engineering happening here in Canada :)

[raffraffraff]

Another +1 on the belt drive. I owned a Cube with a belt drive for a number of years and absolutely loved it. True "zero maintenance", and none of the other problem a chain brings (oil, dirty right-pants-leg, oily hands after putting the chain back on). Switched to an electric a few years back and couldn't find one with a belt drive under 5k.

[jacquesm]

Belt drive would need a bunch of frame changes though (mostly rear fork). Actually, looking at the design a bit more, it might work without modification.