Belt-Drive Full Sus – THE PICS!

Finally, after months of tweaking and faffing and fettling (see my history), its pretty much finished.

Spec:
Kona A, with modified dropouts
Maverick SC32 forks
Hope Pro2 hubs (singlespeed 10mm bolt-in rear) on Mavic EN321
Hope BB
Hope headset
Hope M4 brakes
Hope seatclamp
SLX cranks
Thomson seatpost
FSA Gap stem
EA70 bars (to be replaced)
Gates Carbon Drive 113T belt and 46:22 pulleys
Oh, and big g@y mudguards cos that’s the way I roll

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DSC_0093[/url] by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

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DSC_0094[/url] by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

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DSC_0095[/url] by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

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DSC_0096[/url] by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

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DSC_0097[/url] by ir_bandito[/url], on Flickr

One day I’ll clean it up and do some “proper” photos.

It rides brilliantly. Not a slip from the belt, well, actually, on really steep and slow stuff, putting in as much effort as I physically can, it’s ratcheted once, but the snubber roller kept the belt on so no problem. Totally silent, except for tyre knob buzz when pedalling.

Love it.

You are my spiritual hero.

Belt driven split rear scandal is my next project.
have my babies. Please.

🙂

I should mention that pretty much everything came off these classifieds except the belt drive, the saddle (which I bought years ago), and the dropouts which were made by a friend of a friend.

Belt is the future. Put a hub gear on it and it’s there!

Ive recently asked Mr Richards about his opinion of splitting the back end of a scandal, and his opinion is to do it up the seat stay in the absence of a keyed swapout.

If I get a scandal swapout Ill fondle it for a while to see if I can get a fiend to machine a keyed version, or Ill design a seat stay clamp.

I’ve got a Rohloff and an Alfine-8 on my other bikes, I could yet do it….
And if anyone wants to do a conversion, my LBS (Hexham Bike Shop) has the belt kit from the Orange Strange proto for sale, will fit a cassette hub or ALfine-8.

Daft question but what happens when the suspension moves? Is the Kona frame designed to have no chain stretch/shrinkage throughout the suspension movement? If so, no issues, but surely there will be some chain stretch/shrinkage in place?

Looks nice but I’m curious…

to see if I can get a fiend to machine a keyed version

Typo du jour! 🙂

Joy of the A its a single-pivot, with the main pivot concentric with the BB, so no growth. Its why I did it.

it pivots around the BB so no belt stretch/shrinkage.

All we need is a close ratio hub gear for road-men and we’re there.

marvellous. It looks ace. Can’t wait to ride it. I bet the wife is pleased that you’ve finished fiddling with your rubber strap every night.

this is a something I have firmly on the cards but I’m looking to do it on a solid rear end without the faux bar pivot to reduce flex. also looking into super microdrive to get the belt as close to the pivot as possible.

don’t suppose you happen to be in the Peak area at any time and would be willing to let me have a quick spin?

Ok another stupid question, how do you make belt drive not singlespeed? Would you have to use a Rohloff, and then would you still get the same range of gears as 3 x 10?

Good effort though, nice to see people trying to develop new technology

Rohloff, Alfine and/or Hammerschmidt would give you the geared option

A rohloff has the same range as a 3×9, an alfine 8 as a 1×9. an alfine 11 as a 2×9

Hub gears are teh only real answer along with maybe a bb based gearing system such as the shlumph or the new gearbox

http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/mountain_drive.shtml

looks good in the light. I might be needing a test to see if belt holds up to my pie eating power!!

Excellent tinkering chapeau

Ultimately, I’d like a belted, Rohloff’d hardtail and a full-sus with a Pinion-style gearbox, but I can imagine the pivot around the final drive of the ‘box could be tricky.

thepodge – I’ll be in the Peak the weekend of 29th October…

Pukeko, I’ve got the Voodoo back up and running, you want to try it tomorrow night? Incidentally, chain-drive ROhloff fells weird after the belt.

Belt is the future. Put a hub gear on it and it’s there

How is belt the future? My chain offers less resistance, and doesn’t slip. A nice engineering excercise but what did I miss?

Chain needs cleaning/oiling/measuring/replacing every too often as do cassettes, rings and jockeys. Rings and cogs for belts need none of this and should last decades not months.

That’s a really interesting project.

I’ve a Trek Y bike which I want to go silly with for a lightweight singlespeed, and being a URT would be perfect.

Where did you source the Gates Carbon Drive parts? Also, is it possible to do belt drive without a sliding dropout?

you’d need a split in the rear triangle, from what I remember the y bikes don’t have one

Oh yes. Very good point hehe 😉

can i ask the haters favourite question; why?

i actually do want to know though, not hating! ive heard plenty of mention of belt drives but dont know what the advantages are.

cleanliness, weight & lifespan are all better than a chain

Advantages. Silent, no maintenance needed, long life, efficient (certainly in comparison to a worn / dirty / dry chain)

How is belt the future? My chain offers less resistance, and doesn’t slip. A nice engineering excercise but what did I miss?

Don’t hub gears also drag or lose power/efficiency in the low ratios? I like the idea of belt drive for SS but unless I get a new bike with it all setup I doubt I’d convert.

We happen to have a Nicolai belt drive Rohloff on test in the next issue of Singletrack…

scientifically yes, but in real life you don’t notice it.

edit: hub gear drag, not the nicolai

D0NK

Don’t hub gears also drag or lose power/efficiency in the low ratios?

yes. – and in the higher ones as well – a function of turnings small pinions under high loadings

I love my belt drive it feels quicker to pick up than a chain and it works brilliantly, silent and clean and it worked better than some peoples chains that was the mudfest at ssuk it cleared all the shit perfectly

scientifically yes, but in real life you don’t notice it.

yes. – and in the higher ones as well – a function of turnings small pinions under high loadings

So has anyone done a side by side test deraileur vs hub and chain vs belt with % efficiency, you know all scientific like?

it feels quicker to pick up than a chain

Eh? I thought “pick up” would be down to freehub, nowt to do with chain/belt.

D0nk, pickup with the belt-drive is incredible. And you don’t notice any drag with the increased belt tension. Had to be tried..

Chipps, you ought to do a comparison test with the Nicolai with a chain-drive Rohloff, and also belt drive SS and chain-drive SS to see what difference there is.
You’re welcome to borrow my Rohloff and the Belt-A (as in “purely…”), but my chain-drive SS is in pieces in the loft. I’m sure there might be a few kicking around…

For pretty much all questions of why, where from etc, see my previous threads, link at the top.