Trek district

That is a hypothetical only Tynan could answer. But I think he's having his afternoon hibernation. Shhhhhhhh.

:))

Or somewhere in Clerkenwell paedophiling bike messenger with his camcorder!

Belt drive talked about here. With sort of an answer for you ed.
http://www.singletrackworld.com/article.php?sid=2426
A reprasentative from the company chips in half way through the circlical discussion.
I'm kind of suprised to see so many cropping up so soon, but I guess the road bike offers less of a challenge.

*
"The belts are of the quality that see 100,000 hard miles in car engines and the manufacturers reckon they'll get over 20,000km out of a bicycle belt."*

I'm not surprise at all to see it making an introduction to fixed wheel bicycles, after all it seemed such a perfect marriage of fixed wheel and belt drive, after all the most fragile and expose part of a bicycles has always been the chain and drivetrain (especially on MTB).

The Trek one is just ugly, the only company that actually made a decent fixed wheel belt drive belt is fixie inc.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/19/chainless.bicycles.ap/index.html

Aside from the whisper-quiet ride, the lighter and longer-lasting carbon-fiber composite belts won't rust, can't be cut, won't stretch or slip and won't leave grease marks around your ankles. A guard over the belt-drive and the construction of the system makes getting your pants stuck an unlikely scenario, Bjorling said

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn137/GA2G/TrekDistrict.jpg

I don't like the chainguard. I reckon I could easily convert one of these to fixed.

[quote=vinylvillain;279834]The first thing you do on a Harley or Buell when modifying it is bin the belt drive for a chain. You loose too much power in the drive train, and it stretches easily so requires constant adjustment for optimum performance, although they will work well enough even if slack. Their have been numerous Buell recalls due to belt drive issues.

errr no not really, most do filter, carb, pipes, ignition etc, i have a 1600 S&S engined bike and it still runs a belt, not heard of any needing contant adjustment.

why would you? whats wrong with a chain?

also wouldn't you need a new belt for every gear?

The nice thing about chains is that you can go into any bike shop and buy one, unless belt drive took off overnight and a standard belt size was agreed on by the bike industry I can imagine getting hold of spare belts/pulleys would be alot trickier than finding chain driven components, you wouldn't be able to shop around as much either.

also wouldn't you need a new belt for every gear?

internal gear FTW, there are dozen of belt drive bicycle out there, and a lots of them have internal gear, 8 speed even.

Dead thread, but never mind.

I've done about 250 miles on mine now. Just tightened everything up and, as you would expect, everything nipped up a lot. Except the belt. It hasn't stretched. Not even a mill.

Good stuff - it really is very quiet. Eerie even. The gearing is about 66 inches, so I can pedal my sorry carcass up Greenwich Park without too much drama, and I can go down it at a reasonable lick without spinning out. The orange is highly visible, and I seem to get a much wider berth than when I was on my rat bike. It's light enough to shoulder up and down stairs with great ease, although I do sully that with a rack and bag.

Weird stuff - It's marmite - 45% of comments are down, with 45% up and 10% offering belt geekery. It's leery - I look a little incongruous on it with my bald heid, pannier and "commuter fashions".

Bad stuff - The chain guard is toilet. It's flimsy and poorly bracketed. It flexes, and this translates to Fizz Wizz type popping noises in the down tube as it shifts under the screws. WD40 sorts it. The near side rack eye is located slap behind the rear brake cable. Jiggery pokery sorts it. The fancy bar tape clumps up easily. Not yet sorted.

Laters.

Get rid of the chain guard, they look wank and only serve a purpose if you are riding in flares.
New bar tape is easiy sourced.
Good to hear that the belt is holding up. I like belt drives.

i like the idea of belt drives.

i imagine as long as you have horizontal dropouts you won't need diferent belts for every gear.

and i'd like to applaud the phrase "jiggery pokery sorts it".

Jiggery pokery = technical tinkering

Having ridden a Trek District recently, I fucking love the whole notion of belt drive, even thought the bike itself is pretty much basic (well compared to a bike that you build with the same money).

Mercian Super Vigorelli with S+S coupling on the rear triangle for belt drive compatabity? already start saving now!

I never thought about s&s. That's a quality hit on the clever button. I was thinking of building a hub geared wheel for touring, but I didn't like the cable routing or the geometry. S&S would let me belt up a proper tourer.

There is some adjustment on the dropouts for cog swapping. Probably not enough for those with leg veins like mains pipes though.

I'm still thinking about tinning the chain guard. The one on my dutch family bike only lasted a couple of months before being relegated to the parts mound. This one's even more irritating, but I don't actually need to get at the belt, so it's clinging on like last night's sag aloo.

and next years models include a nice c arbon one...

I ride a district and can wholly reccomend the belt drive, no stretch, noise or filth. handlebars are gay though and were the first thing to be changed for a flat bar. those wide sweeping handlebars are awful, ditto for the chain guard.
I asked about replacement belts and estimated life span, got very vague answers from my local bike shop. the belt hasnt slackened off at all and ive been doing 100 miles a week for the last 4 months on it.
the carbon version coming soon looks the t!ts

I'm not surprise you didn't get much of an answer, after all it's a new technology, I don't think bike mechanic aross the world will automatically know how much it'll cost/how long it should last etc.

I don't think the belt is the weak link. I reckon the placky sprockets will wear out way before the belt.

agreed, the sprocket and chainring do look a bit plastic and cheap, i think they are alloy though - not sure what type. not had any problems yet. touch wood

Interesting thread. It starts all dogma and the rationale starts to come through as people understand more. It looks like the only downside is the inability to easily change gearing. It can be done but it is expensive. Lot's of upsides by all accounts. My District is on order. I can't wait.

Action Bikes in Wimbledon have one in their sale for about £450 (its been in the window for ages). The dropouts have some sort of release mechanism