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Re: Fore/aft bearing wear: forgetaboutit.
I have a BikeBug friction drive assist engine; there are pros and cons to the friction drive. I've found it to be rather sensitive to proper tire pressure and also the pressure of the drive roller against the tire, but some of that was probably just me always wanting the minimum roller pressure that wouldn't suffer noticeable slip. And slip it would if going through rain and puddles. I've thought about car friction drives too and three ideas I had re: wet slip was to run a soft "wicking/wiping roller" ahead of the drive roller to help dry the tire, and also to have the drive roller on the front rather than the rear part of the driven tire as that gives the driven another 180 degrees of rotation to fling contaminants off. Also having the friction drive on a rear wheel instead of front (like my bike) allows for a somewhat cleaner, drier driven tire because it follows in the front tire's track.
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