In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!
But I have also tried a few things that I would characterize as "fringe" in terms of desirable products. Heated flat bar grips come to mind there. I have also tried some stuff that didn't stick, not in a mainstream sense, but are things you could still try. Take for instance Gates Center Track Belt Drive.
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| Gates Center Track Carbon Belt Drive on a Trek (Gary Fisher) Sawyer. |
"The Belt", as I called it then. Back around the late 2000's and early twenty-teens, Gates was trying hard to make their "Carbon" Center Track belts a mainstay of cycling. One way they tried doing this was to get me, a belt critic, to be convinced of The Belt's "magic powers". I tried these belts out at Interbike at first and this was before Center Track. That was, quite frankly, an abject failure and Gates quickly pivoted to the vastly superior Center Track version of The Belt which was reinforced with carbon strands.
I ran this for an extended period of time. I had some hiccups along the way. Sizing The Belt was not quite figured out at this point, and there were limitations to The Belt which made it a sort of niche, at best, application for most cyclists.
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| I really liked this Raleigh XXIX with The Belt. |
The worst parts of The Belt is that, although the claim is that these are quiet, The Belt can and will squeak. Very dry or very wet conditions will bring this out. In the dry, silicone spray will take care of the noise, for a while, but it comes back again, and again, and.....
The Belt can and will break. I've seen it (at Trans Iowa back in the day) and have heard about this before from riders. You cannot fix that. You must be carrying a complete belt to replace the broken one with. And there are strict rules as to how a belt can be stowed so as not to cause it to fail.
The Belt, and its required cogs, are expensive. Far more so than with a chain and alloy or steel cogs are. You need a belt compatible frame, which is another barrier. And finally, you have to run an internally geared hub or gear box to use The Belt. No lighter, more efficient external drive trains (past single speed) here.
Of course, now belts are being promoted as a solution for down hill racing, since that discipline often now uses gear box drive trains. Still, that's not going to be quite the mainstream goal Gates had back in the late 2000's.
That was a multi-year try with a product which, in the right applications, works, but isn't anywhere close to "mainstream". I was proud to be able to bring this to the blog when it all was very new. Just one of the really cool things I was able to be a part of because of this platform.
Belts definitely didn't take off, but I can tell you where they have an application that I use all the time--an all-weather commuter bike. Priority makes some good ones--my wife has one of those--and I've got a Breezer Beltway converted to drop bars. Yeah, you have to use an IGH, which has certain hassles, but compared to daily cleaning and maintenance of a chain and exposed drivetrain, it's night and day. I went 5000 miles on mine and literally the only maintenance I did was taking care of the tires. At 5k, I took apart and relubed the hub. It's so, so easy. And I don't know if I got a good one or what, but mine is dead silent in all weather---no squeaks at all. Downsides: It's not a performance machine by any means. Too heavy, the responsiveness of the hub is low, the shifting range isn't where it should be. Mine has an eccentric bottom bracket, and the tension has to be just right or it'll try to slip gears. Will the belt go someday? Yeah, of course, and that'll be a pain, since I'm not going to carry a spare around. But I'm a believer that for my commute there's nothing better.
ReplyDeleteAfter decades of riding (and it seems like equal amounts of time on maintenance) traditional bikes, I went to a belt drive bike - and it was promptly stolen. But I liked it so much, I built another; Soma Wolverine frame, with the Microshift Alfine 11 drop bar shifters, juintech 4 piston cable actuated disc brakes. Since you can pick up Alfine 11 hubs for a song, I bought 3, and built 3 sets of wheels, 700c for road, 700c for gravel, and 650b for gravel/MTB. All the wheelsets are aluminum, no carbon here. No crazy light parts and the bike weighs in at 24 lbs. Not bad for 58 steel bike with IGH and belt drive. I've got about 15,000 miles on the belt so far, and no signs of stopping. I run my IGH hubs just out of Shimano's specs, and have had no issue there either. The gearing is very comparable to what came on gravel bikes before everyone went to these crazy dinner platters in the back just to be able to ride uphill. It's the greatest and easiest bike I've ever owned. I spend about 6 hours PER YEAR on maintenance! No more broken or stretched chains, I can shift without having to turn the cranks, no chance at a busted derailleur (front or back), water, dirt, sand, mud are a non-issue. The thing is bulletproof. And since the Wolverine tensions the belt at the dropouts, changing wheels is easy, and tension is always perfect. It really is the kind of bike that the vast majority of people SHOULD own. But with thru axles taking over, there are very, very few frames that can take an IGH anymore, and even fewer than can take a belt. So I guess I'll be keeping the Wolverine until it dies, cuz I'm never going back to greasy chains and all the other finicky parts
ReplyDeleteI always find it interesting that most times I am critical of an idea, component, or God forbid, a tire, people who have never commented previously on the blog come out and write passionate defenses and apologetics for their belief in whatever it is I happen to be writing about.
ReplyDeleteWhich is perfectly fine. But please understand I never said belt drive was absolute garbage and no one should use it. I hope that it was understood that some people are going to find a usefulness for that belt on their bicycle of choice. If that isn't clear, well......now it is.
The main thing is that people ride their bicycles. If that means belt drive for you, well then - Carry on.
I’ll skip the belt for a number of reasons, some of which you cite. Failures in the field and complicated replacement are a fatal flaw for me. At least with a chain, I can get it back together without carrying a whole new chain.
ReplyDeleteGates obviously has a lot of marketing budget to throw at this, so they are… but I don’t think they’ll ever be considered a legitimate ‘mainstream’ drivetrain choice.
Ironically, I feel similarly about belts vs. chains when it comes to the engines of my vehicles. After having a timing belt failure 30,000 miles prematurely, in the middle of the 2013 DK200 while my wife was driving between the 50 and 100 mile checkpoints, I’ll never again own a car with a timing belt. Chains are it for me. You can take that one to the bank.