Re: belt drives

On 1/28/2025 5:13 AM, zen cycle wrote:

On 1/27/2025 7:27 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

<https://youtu.be/OlDYHoiqpew?si=dxpa83lxcQxIBEO5>
>
That Ben Denlaney has a new Gravel bike on test with a belt drive, and his
“pub bike” which has belt drive, and the good and the bad with such
systems. Ie punctures are faff and I guess weight to a degree, ie hub vs
derailleur systems.
>
Though touching wood I’ve found Gravel tyres with tubeless fairly reliable
particularly considering that one is riding fairly challenging terrain on
paper thin tyres!
>
Certainly considering how much of puncture fess tubes on Gravel is or was!
Tubeless generally solves that, so would largely remove that problem.
>
Though I’m not sure if belts like mud and muck I have vague memories of MTB
belt drives not performing that well in such situations?
>
Roger Merriman
>

   Gates drive has been around a while, generally good reviews. The idea of having an 'accessible' rear triangle seems troublesome to me though.
 They advertise a model of the drive made for "people who ride off road all year". I'm guessing with some design diligence riding in the muck isn't much of an issue.

For people interested in belt drive, there are a lot of new frames in various formats. Or for any steel frame it's a quick and inexpensive option:
https://www.yellowjersey.org/photosfromthepast/dbgate.jpg
Limited choices but more than there were.
--
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971