There's no chain on the bike -- instead it relies on a shaft drive to move the wheels.

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BB-mounted systems, for instance, drive from the chain rings, meaning potential loss through the rings and chain, while also increasing wear on these components.

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He says discussions with the PC supply chain suggest Q1 production will he below seasonal patterns, due to hard-drive shortages and generally soft demand.

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The sweeping chain of events started in April 2006, when Dwek pulled up to a drive-through window at his longtime bank, a PNC Bank branch in Eatontown, N.

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The trend has hurt all of the players in the PC food chain, including not just Dell and HP, but also Microsoft, Intel, the disk-drive companies and others.

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Jere Thompson Jr. had the experience of watching his father and uncle drive the family's 7-Eleven empire -- a worldwide convenience-store chain that his grandfather started with a single Dallas icehouse in 1927 -- into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1990.

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