Steel commuter recommendation with belt drive for low maintenance?

Hi all
I'm in the market for a new commuter bike. Willing to spend a bit more as I will use it daily but also looking for low maintenance hence was looking for something with a belt drive.

Requirements would be:

• Steel frame
  
• Belt drive - or at a minimum a 1x (will need gears to get up hills where I'm at with load)
  
• Hydraulic disc brakes
  
• Bike rack
  
• Prefer gravel bike instead of mountain bike setup
  
• Rear rack for panniers
  
• Dynamo front/rear lights
  
  

Was looking at a Fairlight or a Surly frame but they don't have a belt drive.. any other suggestions? budget would be +/- 3k

Thanks

Shand if you want to spend a lot

https://shandcycles.com/shop/bikes/stooshie-rohloff/

Belt drive - or at a minimum a 1x

Could look at something with hub gear maybe?

Genesis day one version with Gates belt drive and alfine hub iirc

I would be very careful with dropping that amount of money on a bike that will most likely
ride and shift like shit.
The steel frame will be heavy, the belt drive at that budget limits you to an internal hub so you add essentially an anvil into the rear wheel which will
kick you up in the air and then crash into the ground every time you go over a speed bump.
A gravel setup with drop bars will limit your shifter options unless you go with something
like Alfine Di2.

If I had 3k I’d be tempted to try and budget it in such a way to get an omnium mini frame kit and Rohloff hub. The rest could just be cheap bits. I’d go for chain drive to begin with and build it up myself though -so that would take a significant lump out of total price.

I rode a steel frame, hub gear bike as commuter for several years and it was fine! 'kick you up into the air and then crash into the ground' was absolutely not my experience. It rode great and shifted fine. I eventually sold it to a mate who is still using it as a commuter 5+ years on

Plenty of happy people on the hub gear bike thread and probably mostly on steel frames too.

Admittedly it was a pompino with a sturmey archer hub and didn't cost anywhere near £1k let alone 3. But still, we're talking about a commuter not a race bike

Yeah, hub gears are fine but as you say don't really create a performance bike that's
why I think it's not worth spending that much on a commuter.
Steel frames are now rare, especially with splits that allow a belt, drop bar shifters are also
rare, you either give up hydraulics, go electric, or bodge something with friction shifters.
I had a bike with an Alfine hub with flat bars and the weight was really noticeable in the rear
wheel.
I actually have a frame with an eccentric BB that can be split to take a belt and I was looking
into how much that would cost and just the cogs and the belt are £300, insane.

This one is probably the closest within the budget:
https://www.veloheld.de/veloheld-alleyx-komplettrad/

Edit: ignore me, suggestion didn't have discs

??

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There are seemingly Pompetamine frames around which were belt drive compatible. Zoom in on the dropouts and you can see where it can be unbolted. See recent chat on Pompino owners thread. Would be cool with hydro brakes and di2 alfine

Woodrup up in Leeds make something that would fit the bill. Talk to @TM, he's your man.

A struggle at ~£3k for a full build though to be frank, especially with dynamo lights etc on the list.

Frame and fork you’re starting around £2k.

@MitzEclipse you’re welcome to get in touch if you’d like to discuss we’ve built some lovely belt drive bikes shop@woodrupcycles.com

Pick your frame poison and have it modified to split the stays so it will take a belt.

Maybe sounds weird but even with a hub gear, I’d definitely recommend getting your gearing sorted with a chain and only once you’re settled on a ratio, make the switch to belt.

Buying pulleys and belts because you want a gear between two that you currently have or because you want a larger max/smaller minimum gearing is going to get hella old, hella quick!

If it was my bike, the belt drive would be at the bottom of the list of those priorities. It'd be nice to have but the other criteria will have more of a direct affect on how the bike rides and functions I reckon. Admittedly a chain and sprockets, chainrings etc do need a decent amount of maintenance, especially in shit weather but it doesn't take a huge amount of time or effort to stay on top of it, especially a hub gear set up.

wow, thank you for the responses everyone
I went through all of them. I like @sohi 's suggestion for veloheld - has the style i'm looking for. not sure of the quality of steel tho. I'm used to the Genesis CdF 20 which is Reynolds 725. Are these of similar quality?

Reason for the belt is i'm super lazy for servicing and don't want to deal with it. One concern with the belt however is lack of gears. I'm always carrying heavy loads and climbing hills in zurich is tough - was borderline thinking of an e-bike but trying to resist :)

I’m genuinely not taking the piss here, but hub gears, with a chain, but don’t like cleaning or maintenance? You need a full chain cover. Liz has one on her Dutch bike, 5,000miles and 2 years of riding in all weathers and only oiling the chain twice! and never cleaning it. It still looks like new in there. I’m tempted to put one on my langster shopper.
Pic is to show they’re not just for granny bikes.

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Second for a chain cover. I've got a 1/2 Velo Orange chaincase on my commuter and it massively decreases the need to clean and maintain the drivetrain.

Does that cover only the upper half of the chain? I thought they were for protecting your trousers more than the drive chain.

Get new dropouts/splitter or new back end brazed into your Genesis, spend money on rohloff and belt bits, use as much as possible of existing build to get going and upgrade anything else over time. Should be doable on budget and you’d have a rohloff which is the dream.

This is also something we could help with at Woodrups.

???
http://www.blacksnowcycles.com/framesets/sahra

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rohloff over pinion any day!

TBH I have no ideas about either. They also do one for rohloff… blacksnow can’t be too bad a manufacturer as SJS can get them in for you.