jawnn

I hear rumors that the Shimano bicycle Alfine belt drive has problems with the belt needing to be so tight that the bearings wear out too fast and the cogs wear out because of the road dirt.

Is that true? Are there any other belt drives? Like the gates carbon belt drive? or maybe it's the same but improved?

I wan to use one with a Nuvinci

dchsueh

the two I have heard of are CDrive https://www.cycledrive.com/ and Gates Carbon Drive https://www.carbondrivesystems.com/

Gates has a CenterTrack variant that supposedly runs at lower tension than their original style; this is the system pictured in your blog April 1 2013 entry

jawnn

This has go to be the best idea yet, if it works. Does any one know if they track OK? Or does the belt have a lot of problems staying on??

How is the tension problem?

fietsbob

Continental introduced their belt to compete with Gates , Personally I've never seen either ,

so no User feedback ... did look up the parts cost is about $500 for the belt drivetrain..


I can do a lot of chain replacements before hitting that mark..


Patterson Metro and Schlumpf Speed Drive are both 1.6X over drive setups. in cranksets..

I have the Schlumpf Mountain Drive.. it works well.. its a big reduction gear.. functions as if a 50t-20t double..

sreten

Hi,

(V) Belts need to be tight compared to chains, that is a given,
toothed belts less so, but can't be as loose a chain can be.

The idea tension wears stuff out doesn't hold that much water.

A ball park idea for a toothed belt is stood with one foot on a
pedal at 3 o'clock, tension in the top is near double and tension
in the bottom is near zero, the same as a chain, i.e. tension is
related to half max load, and effectively the riders weight.

If you just pootle about, clearly optimum belt tension is lower.

rgds, sreten.