Belt drive fixed

I think you would need to replace your chain a shite load to make a belt an economic chioce at current prices.

Having that just-serviced/new chain feeling on every ride though - priceless.

Just ordered all the parts from Phil Wood to finish my flip/flop belt brive project, but it's taken 9 months of speaking to Gates and PW to get anywhere. Now PW are making Gates compatible stuff they're far more helpful. Matt at Hubjub was also very useful.

I've ordered a PW rear 'kiss off' mountain bike hub with a PW 22t belt sprocket with bolts onto the disc brake side. The other side is a 22t PW sprocket mated to a White Industries ENO freewheel. Front is 55t/Belt 113mm.Solved the dropout problem by using an Alan frame which has a slightly smaller rear spacing but the 135mm hub fits in easily enough. I imagine you might have issues using a 120mm spacing due to the extra width of the belt and sprockets. I've not yet seen any mass produced belt bikes using less than a 130mm.

The only issue I can see at the moment is the front sprocket hitting the chainstay, so i'm going to need a much longer BB and some spacers, but it should be fine.

It wasn't cheap, but then obsessions rarely are.

The only issue I can see at the moment is the front sprocket hitting the chainstay, so i'm going to need a much longer BB and some spacers, but it should be fine.
It wasn't cheap, but then obsessions rarely are.

This sounds great!

The front belt ring is pretty wide, so expect som issues there, especially with a 55T. I have mine (46T) mounted the on the outer spot, on what was a MTN triple. I have removed one of the driveside BB spacers (external BB) for 'belt-line', and now have very little clearance to the chainstay. This is on a frame designed around the beltdrive system. If you space the Belt-ring out you may find the belt sliding of the rear sprocket. The belt system is very sensitive to belt-line.

I'm sure you'll get around these issues. Best of luck. Sounds like an interesting build.

Just ordered all the parts from Phil Wood to finish my flip/flop belt brive project, but it's taken 9 months of speaking to Gates and PW to get anywhere. Now PW are making Gates compatible stuff they're far more helpful. Matt at Hubjub was also very useful.

I've ordered a PW rear 'kiss off' mountain bike hub with a PW 22t belt sprocket with bolts onto the disc brake side. The other side is a 22t PW sprocket mated to a White Industries ENO freewheel. Front is 55t/Belt 113mm.Solved the dropout problem by using an Alan frame which has a slightly smaller rear spacing but the 135mm hub fits in easily enough. I imagine you might have issues using a 120mm spacing due to the extra width of the belt and sprockets. I've not yet seen any mass produced belt bikes using less than a 130mm.

The only issue I can see at the moment is the front sprocket hitting the chainstay, so i'm going to need a much longer BB and some spacers, but it should be fine.

It wasn't cheap, but then obsessions rarely are.

can you explain a bit more how the sprocket mates to the WI freeweheel?

i am having my cross check chopped at the moment so i can install belt drive and currently use the WI freewheel

cheers

Question, when flipped, does the belt detachable? How will the belt be tight enough for it? Or do you need to carry around with you another size belt?

I know this is an old post, but was wondering about it the other day.

And of course, this is where belt drive are going to be beneficial, on a commute/utility bike with internal gear hubs;

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3416/3553872870_65a18809f9_b.jpg

As for the Fixie Inc one, I have a closer look at it and notice the hubs look like a standard flip flop hubs, which mean the belt cog can be screw onto any normal track hubs, if that is the case, then it'd make it so much easier and simplier;

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3547/3524112395_8aef2c66d1_o.jpg

Question, when flipped, does the belt detachable? How will the belt be tight enough for it? Or do you need to carry around with you another size belt?
I know this is an old post, but was wondering about it the other day.

It would work in the same way as a standard chain and a fliflop hub. As long as the room for adjustment in the drop-out/track-end, is enough to compensate for the difference in cog size there would be no problem.

Personaly, I'd advise the use of chain tensioners. The belt drive is more sensitive to tension differences than a chain.

How the hell do you get a lock ring tool on that?

How the hell do you get a lock ring tool on that?

As I understand it, you use a specially designed one. As well as a special 'belt' whip to remove the cog.

In see a lot of people mentioning a problem with chainring clearance and standard frames not designed for the belt. All the pictures of belt driven frames have big chainrings and big sprockets. If you do away with the big chainrings then this increases the clearance. You can still achieve decent gears on smaller chainrings too. 33x12 gives me 74in which is big enough for me with the hills around here.

Even for the bigger gear people 44x13 gives you 91in

belts don't come that small though

It's very difficult to wrap a belt around a small sprocket. That's why they use big sizes.

smallest front at the moment is a 46, they have had issue with the 39T (?) and withdrawn it until they are confident of it.

i've gone for 46t front and 22t rear for my alfine cross check, just waiting on a 115 belt

It's very difficult to wrap a belt around a small sprocket. That's why they use big sizes.

because the teeth get pushed closer together and won't engage properly

Well that sucks then. Standard chain FTW

Yeah, and standard chains won't stretch like a belt will.

They claim otherwise and it's in the warranty that it will not stretch.

"In laboratory testing, the Carbon Drive System lasts more than twice the life of chain. Chains are often replaced due to stretch and wear rather than actual failure. The Carbon Drive belt does not stretch, so the smooth running performance remains consistent throughout its own life."

This could of course be marketingwank, but it would be a foolish claim when they're trying to get this to be the trade standard rather than just a Mini-disc style gadget.

McCarthly is just pulling your legs, he have a habit of doing that.

"Carbon Drive belt does not stretch" Like fuck it doesn't. It will stretch but not on such a scale that your normal non analistic person would recognise

Citation needed.

I'm not able to accurately tell how much the belt on my Ditrict has stretched as I'v had it on and off the bike loads, currently off as I'm running the bike fixed, but i'v had the belt on it a fair bit and i'm still able to get it tensioned with the limited adjustability of the District frame so if it has stretched it hasn't stretched much.

I have another bike that uses a Gates carbon belt drive though, an 883cc Harley Sportster and in over a year of owning it (and riding it hard) I haven't touched the belt tension.
Compare that to when I had a chain driven Yamaha xt660 which had a smaller engine. With that bike I had to adjust chain tension on average, weekly and if I drove from Glasgow to Fort William (just over a hundred miles, lots of twisty roads so accelerating and braking and overtaking) I'd have to take tools with me to do the tension before I rode back.

So, do you think i'm gonna worry about the belt for my Trek stretching?

You should because there is a lot more force on the belt from riding a push bike than driving a motorbike.

Bollocks.

double bollocks

Not bollocks actually:

You should produce considerably more torque than a stock Harley, which is in the 100Nm range. My body weight (with shoes etc) on a 165mm crank is about 130Nm and I can probably get that up to over 150Nm by pulling on the bars.

You should because there is a lot more force on the belt from riding a push bike than driving a motorbike.

Not bollocks actually:

After a little googling the figures for torque seem about the same for an average cyclist and the Harley Sportster.

The horsepower figures are massively different however as is the average/max speed and the amount of mileage that is likely to be/i have clocked up on the different types of bikes.

Perhaps the motorcycle industry has missed something and has been using chains twice as heavy as bicycle chains for no reason.

Think of the weight saving when they start using kmc 510 chains on moto gp bikes!

However, the argument was that the carbon belt drive would stretch and the comparison between carbon belt drive and chain drive on similarly powered motorbikes still stands.