It appears to be mild snark about the mixed units (km vs miles) caused by quoting two different sources.

Minimum time to failure seems to be 500 in either unit, so it makes sense to move manufacturing (or at least testing) the the region that uses the larger unit.

Ok. Silly quips aside, bike chains do actually last 5000 miles, not 500, if you keep them relatively clean. That's a lot better than 1500 miles or kilometers.

If this rope works well and is easy to replace, and is inexpensive I think I would be fine with changing it every 300 to 1,000 miles or so. They have it listed that you can change colors to match your outfit, so I am expecting it to be that easy.

> Change the strings quickly and easily in 2 minutes, no tool required and no need to remove the wheel. Choose the color to match your outfit or mood.

They say a few minutes, but with a lockring tool and a chain with a masterlink, I bet someone with a bit of experience could change a cassette in under 2 minutes as well. The rest of the mechanism seems a lot less durable and a lot less amenable to off-road riding where one might wish to pedal backward up to a full revolution to reposition their feet without wishing to propel the bike forward. It might be OK for casual / commuter bikes, but belt drives already exist and last a long time. The width of the rear axle required for the dual-sided drive also looks super goofy and probably gives a poor Q factor ( https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/what-is-q-factor-and-do... ). Overall these seem like a lot of compromises for little benefit beyond a chain or belt. Chain-driven bicycles are also incredibly robust and proven to work amazingly well in a very wide range of conditions, and are serviceable worldwide.

That's a simplistic analysis. Quality chains almost certainly have a life longer than 500 miles, even taking into account premature failures.

Regardless, aren't you suggesting here that we should use chains and not strings because their upper bound of lifetime is higher?

My Gates belt probably has >10k miles on it and is also silent. Coupled with a Rohloff, it is an essentially maintenance free drivetrain, save for changing the hub oil once per year.

Too bad that the Rohloff setup alone is like $1600, and the non-electric bikes with them tend to be >$5000. That Santos Cross Lite with the Lauf suspension fork does look pretty trick though. They have a helpful bike finder, though lots are not available in the US https://www.rohloff.de/en/service/search/bike-finder