Who has a belt drive bike?

I’ve seen people do that. seems the easiest way to me but most seem to have a split in the seat stay.

saw a couple of belt drive bikes at SSWC yesterday.

I have a Trek District, been very happy with it as an everyday bike.

timing belts in infernal combustion engines have annihilated timing chains

Rumours goes that as car manufacturers are moving back to using chains, Gates looked for a different market to get involved in…

You should be an engineer.
He was

plrrppp… to Jon 😉
And I am, hence redsisigning components to modify a bike to suit a different purpose.

Oh, a bit of an aside, check out ecovelo.org for a blog on general utility bikes, including belt-drives and Alfines.

I’m seriously considering getting a belt drive bike, but they don’t make it easy, do they ?

Van Nicholas do a Zion 29er, but they only list the 26er for belt drive. I’v emailed them to ask if there’s likely to be a belt drive 29er soon.
I did a search for Zion on here and I found a warranty replacement one for sale.
It was shortly after searching and finding two warranty replacement Lynskey frames on here that my own Lynskey cracked, so that’s not a good omen. 🙁

Nicolai do a 29er Argon for Rohloff & Gates. £1275 for an aluminium hardtail frame though. That’s more money than a titanium Lynskey or Van Nic for a heavier frame. It’s also £100 more than the same frame on the German website.
There’s nothing on the UK site about belt drives and not much on the German site either. No mention of the new centre drive. I had to cross reference with Gates’ own site for advice on gear ratios and belt length.
No mention of Lefty either, although there’s pictures of at least two Argon Leftys on the web.
Maybe they just haven’t updated the website and if I contacted Nicolai UK directly they could answer all my questions.

An interesting read…
here

Just get a normal ss frame and get the seatstay split by a frame builder.

crundi – Member
An interesting read…
here

no it wasnt 😉

Just get a normal ss frame

Not all “normal” frames are laterally stiff enough to keep the belt aligned…

What bandito says the frame needs to be stiff enough I have a belt drive set up for sale in classifieds if anyone interested

Al: Just get a normal ss frame

Bandito: Not all “normal” frames are laterally stiff enough to keep the belt aligned…

They are if you add spoon and candle wax bracing spars…

so you want a mrk1 santa cruz chameleon then.

Van Nicholas emailed me back.
They’d want an extra £440 as a custom build on top of the normal frame price for a belt drive ready Zion 29er with a Lefty head tube.

Nicolai list the parts and prices for all the belt drive stuff on their website, but they don’t mention the sprocket adapter needed for Rohloff, there’s no advice on which belt length is needed and they don’t say whether it’s the older style belt or the newer centre track.
It’s as if they’re trying to put people off buying it.
At £1275 for a hardtail aluminium frame, that’s 3 times the price of a Chumba HX2, I’m finding it hard to justify buying an Argon.
Maybe when the winter comes and I’m adjusting my chain every day, I’ll change my mind though.

Ringo, you need to specify the belt length so I can work out what chainstay length it will suit.
http://www.carbondrivesystems.com/downloads/tech_docs/Belt2Gear_Calc.xls

The adjustable dropout system on the Whytes mentioned previously is the best system I’ve come across, but could not be modified for a belt drive, as the chainstay/seatstay is welded to form a complete triangle. The plate dropout just covers it.

Interested to know how you get on MTQG. This is the way forward I reckon.

(cough)hacksaw 😉

For commuting I would love Genesis to do the day one alfine in an 11 speed belt drive spec. That would be the ideal commuting bike for me. With full guards it would be perfect. Slightly heavy but the weight isn’t an issue.

Please make one Genesis, thank you.

British made custom and production steel road bikes & touring bikes – Shand Cycles

This guy does conversions to steel frames to take belt drive.

its a 118 belt greaham so around 450mm stays

does anyone else do belt drive parts? they seem a little expensive to be experimenting with at the moment

Nope not in the same league as gates my kits a cheapish way to try 😉

The Orange/Strange prototype uses standard 8mm pitch belts rather than expensive Gates Carbon drive