List of belt-drive compatible mtb frames

I’m toying with the idea of building an XC or monstercross belt drive, but can’t find a good list of what’s available and in particular I’m struggling to find a cheapish steel option available in the UK

Below is what I know of, anyone want to add to this?

Shand Bahookie
Salsa Fargo
Olsen Bikes (loads of things)
Soma Juice & Riff
Nicolai (loads of things)
Pipedream Alice
Spot Rocker

I think @MidlandTrailquestsGraham might have some useful insights on this.

Salsa would be a bit of a pain as it would mean disassembling the dropout.

Is Spot still going?

thanks ratherbeintobago, Spot is still going, but no longer steel and I’ve no idea if you can get them in the UK (I normally buy secondhand and never seen one for sale)

I think it may be best to keep this to a ‘who makes a belt-drive’ thread rather than a pros-and-cons of belt-drives thread

From what I’ve read, belt drives are much better now than 10 years ago. Loads of info here on that:

Belts Are Now Better Than Chains On Bicycles (135,000km of Testing)

If it helps at all I’ve got an El Mariachi (which is essentially a flat-bar Fargo and sadly not made any more).

The current iteration is meant to be belt compatible but look very similar to mine, which aren’t

Short answer; probably OK for general use, definitely not OK for a 95 kg rider doing up to 9000 km a year including an off road commute and reasonably good 12 hour race results.

The biggest problem was always anything fibrous, like grass or leaf mould. A rubber belt simply can’t chop through it like a metal chain. It would just build up until it forced the belt off.
The sudden catastrophic failure was a bit of an inconvenience as well. A chain can make strange noises for a week or two, giving you chance to replace it (and the sprockets if needed) in time. A belt just breaks.

I think it may be best to keep this to a ‘who makes a belt-drive’ thread

My frame is a Qoroz. An independent British one man band company who gets his frames built in China.
Very good to deal with for a custom frame. Talked through everything I wanted (belt drive, EBB, Lefty, Rohloff drop out and cable guides). Sent me the drawing for approval before building the frame.
He’s on Facebook (search Qoroz) but doesn’t have a web site.
The frame itself was spot on. The Chinese fabrication and welding is every bit as good as my USA built Lynskey. I’m still using it, just with a chain drive now.

thanks @MidlandTrailquestsGraham, I’ll check out Qoroz 🙂

…as for the rest, I assume/hope you won’t take offence to this, but from what I’ve just read on here, it seems it’d be a struggle to make a complete bike if one were to avoid buying anything that you’ve ever broken 🙂

i was going to run a belt on my fargo. until i talked to a mate who had one.
failed twice, once while touring in france.
i mentioned it to the shop prior to buying, and was told to steer clear as fail rate was high.

i know that the bloke on cycling about raves about how good they are, but ask on a serious touring forum, something like ‘crazyguyonabike’. and the replies will mostly be negative.

The belt breakages usually come after the combination of (a) a belt off THEN (b) not putting the belt back on the using the correct method ( re-railing it onto the chainring like a dropped chain, putting part of the belt on then pedalling, rather than popping out the back wheel and placing the loose belt on the chain ring/ sprocket when in line). Re-railing it like a chain puts a temporary sideways kink into the belt and breaks the internal carbon strands. Then at some point later the onternally weakened belt does break.

You can temporarily change the belt tension if it’s mega sticky filth mud + cut grass like used to be the norm at Sleepless and Mayhem when it rained, to reduce the risk of a belt-off (not long term as it overloads the BB brgs and/or rear hub brgs). Obvs not always simple at trailside depending on if the frame has horizontal dropouts (not too bad to do) or uses an eccentric BB (tricky trailside).

i was going to run a belt on my fargo. until i talked to a mate who had one.
failed twice, once while touring in france.
i mentioned it to the shop prior to buying, and was told to steer clear as fail rate was high.

i know that the bloke on cycling about raves about how good they are, but ask on a serious touring forum, something like’crazyguyonabike’. and the replies will mostly be negativ

Interesting!

I also remember something about Rohlhoffs not liking belt tension though e.g. Trek used to sell a belt drive commuter bike with an Alfine.

Suggestions please! here’s some (discontinued) inspiration

(although an alu version of that is still available)

@MidlandTrailquestsGraham, one last thing in reponse — I’ve taken your point about belts vs. fibrous stuff in mind. That’s interesting. I don’t think the cycling about guy who praises them has covered that

Don’t worry about offending me. 🙂
I always said a big problem with bike components is that they are a one size fits all design.
I’m not particularly fast, but in terms of weight x distance x speed, I’m probably putting more wear on my bike than most people and I think me riding a belt drive is like putting a sports car gearbox in a Land Rover.
Nothing wrong with the product, just the wrong application.

Leaf mould was the worst. You could see it getting compressed and building in to a hard packed fibrous layer and feel the belt getting tighter.

@ratherbeintobago, I’d thought about trying to run a belt with my (recently aquired) Rohloff, but what put me off is that I’d need a massive chainring even to run a 20t rear sprocket, and with a belt I’d ideally want much larger at the rear

I think belts and Pinions go much better together: 42/16 on a Rohloff gives about the same range as 39/30 with a Pinion C1.9

I also remember something about Rohlhoffs not liking belt tension though

Plenty of companies use belts with rohloffs with no issues that I know of

not steel but pinions/belt drives on
zeroid’ new zealand carbon
sonder broken road or signal Ti

my friend has a kingdom pinion/belt drive, brilliant for winter.

legometerology

thats heck of a high gearing you want.  I run 32/16 on my rohloff on 29 wheels.  Now thats pretty low for sure but it does mean gear 11 is cruising speed which is the 1:1 gear

tj, the 42/16 I’m running matches the top end of my previous 1×10 set up (42/11-42) and gives me a few more gears at the bottom

It’s actually a bit low still (44/15 would be better), but it does mean I spend more time in the more efficient gears

This is a gravelbike though; I’d go lower on an mtb

Pinion and belt owner here. My 1st belt lasted less than 200 miles rather than 10000 I might have thought.

An element of that was user error I suspect as first time belt user.

A loose front sprocket led to belt slipping off sideways once under force. A second time weeks later was a huge clay build up near yoke which then forced belt sideways. Weeks later spotted a rip in belt, fortunately before use.

The first issue won’t be repeated. All my fault. The second I just need be mindful of, fortunately that was not my usual riding location or ground conditions.

As Gates are clear belts have strength and longevity lengthwise bit are not designed in any way for sideways movement. That kills them quick.

For all the above I do like the belt. I’m not one for bike washing and when I do it’s a quick effort. Not worrying about rust or oil I like.

I’ve had the same belt on my bahookie for that last 6 years.  It’s a singlespeed that gets used about half the time I’m riding off road.  Belts rock as long as the tension is correct

Why not get a used steel ss bike and get a splitter fitted on the seatstay?

(Something I’m contemplating myself).

@cynic-al, I’ve wondered about that, the thing holding me back is the stuff the cycling about guy says about frame stiffness

He rekons you can run well under recommended belt tension on a stiff frame, which would be great as that’d increase efficieny and reduce hub and bb wear

So I’m not sure what frames would be ideal for conversion

Belt-drive for the road is my advice. You need to keep them really clean or they just wear out + snap (£50+ for a new one). You can run them pretty loose though. Really quiet and no maintenance too – way nicer than a chain. Maybe some-one could come up with a flexible super material that will withstand grit + mud.

Check out Ryan van Duzer and John and Mira on the you tube.

@finephilly you mean ss fixie or IGH? I’m waiting for a close ratio IGH for a road bike.

@legometeorology agreed but it’s hard to know how significant that is. There are plenty of beefy SS frames around tho surely?

@cynic-al, yes, probably. I wonder is a Surly KM or Krampus would be a good candidate. Not exactly known for their ride quality!

Or perhaps any bikepacking orientated frame that’s designed to take a bit of load.

You could fit one to a Trek Stache or 1120 because of the raised chainstay. The chain doesn’t go through the frame at all.

It’d work as a regular 29er in the short dropout setting.

@munrobiker, I thought I’d read that the Stache chainstays are too flexy to run a belt, but a quick google unearthed no warning stories

I’ve recently put one on my Bahookie. For frames that are not designed for belt drive but happen to have a split seatstay/dropout etc I’d consider whether the frame is stiff enough to not flex too much to upset belt alignment.

Also I found it was hard to get the ‘beltline’ correct, quickly realised eyeballing it like chain drive was not going to work so a quick Google and I used a metal rule and calipers to find the centre of the frame and measure the pulleys off that.

I had a tiny hint of belt squeak at the end of my second ride out and whilst dozing the next morning realised that due to following two different guides, I’d measured the rear hub from axle cap to cap but then set up the rear pulley by measuring off the freehub lock ring. Just a few millimetres difference but probably explains why some riders complain of squeaking belts in dry weather.

Trek used to sell a belt drive commuter bike with an Alfine.

Still do, with a few options of frame style and price. I’ve been commuting a District 4 Equipped for a year now, it’s brilliant for the application.