Belt drive fixed

I'm doing that just to acquire the stuff. You know, I can't find a single retailer in Europe that appears to list this stuff on their website and will ship it immediately if I were to place an order.

Phil Wood should let me be their UK distributor, as should Gates. I'd rock at it... easiest thing in the world to sell quality components that have a market already and lots of people willing to part with cash for it.

If you did that then you wouldn't be able to complain that this place doesn't make you any money.

Of course I would. Can you imagine the cash flow I'd need to get started? I'd need insurance, company registration, storage facility, blah blah blah. It would be great though, at least the potential to make money would be there. More to the point, I'd be dead chuffed to be able to sell quality items that are hard to come by, as a connoisseur of bike stuff filling that clear gap in the market just helps people like me who like to have such great stuff... that would make me happy.

why dont they make some kind of half link thing for belts instead of all this fucking around with frames?

Sure it will, it's a belt.

tighten it a notch. Just like losing weight innit.

why dont they make some kind of half link thing for belts instead of all this fucking around with frames?

Compromises the integrity of the belt.

Surely so long as the belt connection can out-last the belt, all is well? I think i read belts are supposed to last about 3(?) years, so as long as the connection is more durable than that, you're away!

Surely so long as the belt connection can out-last the belt, all is well? I think i read belts are supposed to last about 3(?) years, so as long as the connection is more durable than that, you're away!

and it would make changes to the length possible assuming you could cut the belt if putting on smaller ring or cog.

Might need the whole belt thing to catch on a bit more yet before anyone bothers developing it but as you say it would bring the option of belt drive to any frame which is a major plus/selling point

wouldn't think you could cut the belt then re-join anyway.
you'd have to put a smaller belt on

why dont they make some kind of half link thing for belts instead of all this fucking around with frames?

Surely so long as the belt connection can out-last the belt, all is well? I think i read belts are supposed to last about 3(?) years, so as long as the connection is more durable than that, you're away!

Do you not think the people currently developing belt drives havent thought of this? obviously it would be a HELLA load cheaper to have a belt with a connection, rather than chopping up frames all over the place, but as V pointed out, it would compromise the integrity of the belt. if it WAS possible, i reckon it would have been done by now.

tighten it a notch. Just like losing weight innit.

I wear a chain around my waist...

Yup, you can't just put a belt buckle on these things... the threads of the carbon belt overlap and go around the full length of the belt, think of a whole spindle of cotton wrapped between two poles so the single thread goes back and forth hundreds of times... if you added a coupling you'd weaken the entire structure and focus all of the force onto a single point. Without the coupling you'd have to break a significant number of the threads to weaken it to a point where it would fail, it's much much stronger.

tighten it a notch. Just like losing weight innit.

I wear a chain around my waist...

not only your waist from what I've heard ;p

Of course I would. Can you imagine the cash flow I'd need to get started? I'd need insurance, company registration, storage facility, blah blah blah. It would be great though, at least the potential to make money would be there. More to the point, I'd be dead chuffed to be able to sell quality items that are hard to come by, as a connoisseur of bike stuff filling that clear gap in the market just helps people like me who like to have such great stuff... that would make me happy.

I am often surprised at the amount of cycling gear that is pretty much only availible through German internet sites.

There's a fair amount of high tech weight weenie stuff, and some pretty mind blowing internal gearing mechanisms.

I have often wondered what the market for this stuff is like in the UK?
Do th britih bike nerds just order from Germay?

why dont they make some kind of half link thing for belts instead of all this fucking around with frames?

The Gates carbon drive is so called because the uni directional carbon fibres running along the belt. I imagine a large part of the systems strength comes from the bel being a one piece unit.

ED: too slow.

Yup, I order my bike porn components from starbike usually.

I've found German sites have a better selection of cassettes too, also roses sell individual cogs if you want to customize a cassette.

Yup, you can't just put a belt buckle on these things... the threads of the carbon belt overlap and go around the full length of the belt, think of a whole spindle of cotton wrapped between two poles so the single thread goes back and forth hundreds of times... if you added a coupling you'd weaken the entire structure and focus all of the force onto a single point. Without the coupling you'd have to break a significant number of the threads to weaken it to a point where it would fail, it's much much stronger.

Should never say can't, there is probably a solution somehwere but no-one would be willing to spend time or money looking into it. The whole belt structure would need to change but it wouldn't be impossible, would it?

Maybe loads of smaller bits of belt formed into links of some sort :-)

eventually there will be belts of loads of slightly different sizes as the market grows

eventually there will be belts of loads of slightly different sizes as the market stretches

Fixed.

Well you could double the length of the fibres and wrap them around two titanium pins, then fold the whole thing and then connect the pins in a half link and that way it would be structurally intact... but you've just made the cost much greater than it was, and you still have the issue that the strength is much reduced as the fibres would now be tightly bent around those pins. Oh, and anything sticking out the side would now be incompatible with everything made to date, so the belt would jump from the beltring and sprocket.

Or you could just gate your rear triangle.

Or you could just gate your rear triangle.

+1
simples
http://www.lfgss.com/post1148623-147.html

I wonder how possible it is to gate a Brooklyn Machine Work, that'd be the icing on the cake.

http://www.sandsmachine.com/fbplist.htm

I was directed to the above site via EcoVelo to find various companies that do frame couplings. Retrofitting is a case of installing a S&S coupling, as per a travel frame, but reduced in size and into the driveside seatstay. In some ways I prefer this idea to having the opening at the drops, not cheap though.

far prefer this idea
much cleaner and would be a lot cheaper
http://www.cycles-for-heroes.com/sites/default/files/neuigkeit/FI-coupler-prototype.jpg

http://www.sandsmachine.com/fbplist.htm

I was directed to the above site via EcoVelo to find various companies that do frame couplings. Retrofitting is a case of installing a S&S coupling, as per a travel frame, but reduced in size and into the driveside seatstay. In some ways I prefer this idea to having the opening at the drops, not cheap though.

that price is for the two S&S coupling on the frame, not the seatstay.

maybe it's not readily available as this guy seems to have built his own frame:-

http://www.ecovelo.info/2009/12/07/gallery-morgan-pattons-handmade-belt-drive-commuter/

I think it looks ok