Belt drives haven’t taken over the world yet. Is it just a matter of time or are they still not that good?

I’ve only tried one briefly on a Trek Soho but didn’t particularly like it: the drive felt lumpy as the teeth engaged the cog. Could just be bad adjustment on the demo bike, though, and I wasn’t a fan of the bike either.

Anyone with Alfine + belt drive combo? Any good? Any problems?

Does no-one have a belt drive bike?

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/no-more-lube-for-me

Mine works smooth as a smooth thing, need to have a winter in the mud and shit until I’m sold completely on it though

Never tried one but my guess is that currently it’s hard to argue with against a chain that’ll love you long time for about 7 quid.

the main issue slowing the adoption of belt drive is they aren’t a simple replacement got the chain.

there aren’t many frames with an open rear end and you can’t run any kind of sprung rear tensioner such as a rear mech.

so until we see much more development in hub gears belts will always be second to a chain.

Can you put some sort of link into the belt to split it? A splitting mechanism on a frame sounds very unappealing – though I admit I’ve never seen how this is accomplished up close.

Belts don’t look convincing IMO, but it’s good to see different approaches to the MTB drivetrain. Need to explore plenty of ideas before one will prove its worth.

ir_bandito is on holiday.
His belt drive FS Kona-A is in development. The rear triangle flexes under heavy load and the belt slips with an almighty bang. He has bent two snubbers with his powerful leg muscles. Maintaining tension on the belt is also an ongoing challenge.
I think chains will be around for a long time yet.

Did Dab, you forgot to mention that Bandito’s full suss belt drive is single speed config. New dropouts will probably (?) solve the slip problem that only occurs under very heavy loads that you get attempting to ride up very steep trails on SS. You probably would not get this with alfine hub gears or running on a HT. I am looking forward to a test on bandito’s to see if my 100kg of beer and pie power can cause slippage!! 🙂 However, I agree, chains will be around for a while – especially on my bike…

I saw the Milk Bike in this month’s MBR and, though only one “from-the-rear” shot, thought it looked lovely. The Mk1 PA front end the Kobe-style TT and my choice du jour Alfine hub.

http://www.milkbikes.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/mbr/mbr-review-of-adl.jpg

you can’t run any kind of sprung rear tensioner such as a rear mech.

Whys that podge? I don’t see why it should be a problem?

It needs more tension than they can provide.

Stronger spring maybe?

A tensioner will never give you the tension needed, gates are bringing out something called centretrack at the end of the year which you will be able to run slacker

That’s a shame, I’ve long hoped it would be possible to use alfine-belt-tensioner on my SC Superlight as the chain doesn’t pass through the frame. Looks like that’s not going to happen. 🙁

It needs more tension than they can provide

in other words, a solid 10 mm Al plate can be bent quite easily.

Cheers all. It’s not for me, but for my brother who’s looking at new bikes. He wants Alfine (road / CX / commuter thing, not MTB, by the way) and some now come with belts as standard.

So the frames should be set up for belt (with split, non flexing, chunky tensioners etc). Just wondering whether there are any disadvantages for going with the belt drive if that turns out to be what’s on the bike he chooses.

i did dab – what you on about? springs aren’t made from 10mm plate.

mark a – trek do a few road / commuter belt drive bikes off the shelf. also check out Spot Brand bikes