Patent ID: 6893370

Claim:
In a belt-drive continuously variable transmission including a pair of pulleys, and a belt engaged with the pair of pulleys, and including an endless carrier and a plurality of transverse elements closely arranged on the carrier, each of the transverse elements having an edge in contact with an adjacent one of said transverse elements and pivotable about the edge relative to said adjacent one of said transverse elements in a plane parallel to the longitudinal direction of the belt for enabling the belt to be wound around the pair of pulleys, each of the transverse elements having converging side faces for contact with contact surfaces of the pulleys, the improvement wherein when each of said transverse elements is observed in a plan view, each of said side faces is stepped to have a protruded surface area that is located adjacent said edge, wherein said protruded surface area protrudes towards each of said contact surfaces in a way such that the center of action of a force transmitted between each of said transverse elements and each of said pulleys coincides with a point at which said edge and each of said contact surfaces meet.