If it wasn't for your "Oh. My. God. I cannot believe she just SAID that!" tone, I'd say you might have a point that a chainring style guard would be preferable. I do think you need some sort of guard to make sure you keep your pantleg out of the sprockets, but since you don't have to worry about putting your leg to far back and getting grease on it from the chain I suppose I can't really think of any advantage of a chainguard over a chainring guard. Sometimes a chain guard keeps stuff (dirt, snow) from getting thrown onto the chain, but between the fenders and the fact that stuff that lands on top of the belt doesn't go through like it would on a chain but rather it would likely just fall off as the belt goes around, I suppose I can't think of any advantage. Hmm, maybe it would help keep snow from getting into the cogs (or whatever they're called) on the belt, but it seems like it wouldn't make much of a difference. Hmm.

I disagree with your "probably shouldn't be wearing such clothes outside anyways" thing - I know I'd prefer a bike I can just hop on in whatever I'm wearing and simply not even have to think about it. In fact, I just bought a bike and went waaaaaaaaay out of my way to get a chainring guard as it didn't come with one (let me tell you - it's a PITA to find a chainring guard for a 50 tooth chain).

In regards to "cleaner than a chain", while it's a little bit marketing hyperbole I think it's still true -
1. If I put my bike in my car, I don't get chain grease on stuff (there's chain grease on the backs of my seats for example as I have to wedge my bike in between the front seats and the back seats).
2. I don't get anything oily when I oil the chain - don't have to take it outside or to the garage. (Unrelatedly you don't have to oil a belt at all)
3. No matter where my bike ends up, I just don't have to worry about getting chain oil on anything that might fall against it, press against it, etc.

Now my personal opinion is that I'm going to take a "wait and see" attitude about whether using belts on a bike rather than a chain works out. It's new, and I'd rather not be the first in the pool, so to speak (tried it once with a bike already, could have worked better). But I do think it's an intriguing idea - in theory far better than a shaft drive (no efficiency losses (well we'll see), no grease to add, no (or negligible) extra weight, and a simple enough change that your local bike shop mechanic isn't going to look at it and say "we don't even know how to work on these").

I'm just playing devil's advocate. I agree that most people wouldn't care, and would probably remove it.

That said, I chose to leave the chainguard on my casseroll even though I will likely never ride that bike with long pants.

It's just much easier for Civia to design one than for people to try to fit something after the fact. Haven't they already said there will be one? So the whole debate's moot.

Yes. I've never had an issue with long pants on the bikes I have with them.

And is a marginal cost adder for a nicely fit one from the market (it's just a mass produced piece of bent metal with some screws). Cost's more to add one after market... finding a nice one to add after market is worse.

Alright, cool; it's been years since I've had a bike with a chainring guard.

I'm curious - do you mean there won't be an STI style shift option just if you convert, or there won't be one even on the production Versa?

I just ran across the Versa VRS-8, which are STI style shifters for an Alfine or Nexus hub -
https://www.thebikebiz.com/Versa_VRS_...-acc-ver01.htm

At $250 retail price they aren't cheap (same price as ordering Tiagra shifters at full retail, as I just found out).

You don't need anyone to field test this new bike do you ?



Add a Schlumpf drive and you have my dream bike.

I was wondering the same thing since his reply was a little ambiguous, but I didn't want to keep peppering him with questions about a model they will be debuting soon.

Never seen a new SS bike in a shop that actually met CPSC requirements, eh? My Cannondale Capo came with a chain guard.

tcs

None that I have seen with drop bars. I didn't look completely through your link, but I saw the following which I assume you are referring to:

Bicycles with a single front and a single rear
sprocket must have a chain guard over the top of
the chain and least 90% of the part of the front
sprocket that the chain contacts. It must also
extend back to within at least 3.2 inches of the
center of the bicycle’s rear axle. The top of the
guard from the front sprocket back to the rear
wheel rim must be at least twice as wide as the
chain. Past that point, the top of the guard may
taper down until it is ½ inch of the chain width.
The guard must prevent a 3 inch long, ⅜ inch
diameter rod from catching between the upper
junction of the sprocket and the chain when a
tester tries to insert the rod at any direction up to
a 45 degree angle from the side of the bicycle
that the chain is on.

There are definitely plenty of bikes out there being sold that do not meet this requirement.

My Civia Hyland is the Rohloff hub model and there is no optional shifter available for it. The problem is twofold. The Rohloff hub uses a dual cable pull-pull cable arrangement for the shifter and the cable pull for full range shifting is almost 4" of cable travel.

There is one european source for a two piece drop bar setup that allows the Rohloff twist shifter to be mounted on the bar top flat area. This is the best arrangement I have seen for doing a drop bar bike with the Rohloff hub.

That's a nice lookin' bike.

The Bryant will come with an STI style shift lever.
What I am saying is that there is no option either production or aftermarket to use a Rohloff hub and an STI style shift lever.
Let me know if I am missing the question you are asking.
Thanks
PJ

Would it be possible to install a Rohloff on the Bryant? One could go with that aftermarket two-piece drop bar solution tatfiend mentioned. I wonder if you could still use belt drive with a Rohloff or if you'd have to convert to chain?

You can run a Rohloff on the Bryant. I know that there are cogs out there that folks are using to run a belt on a Rohloff; however I have not heard that Rohloff has given their thumbs up to it yet. I will check with our guy at Rohloff and see what he has to say.
PJ

As long as you use a gear ratio within the range suggested for the Rohloff, what would it matter? The Rohloff wouldn't know its being driven by a belt instead of a chain.

Nice bike.

I like what Civia is doing.

I predict a huge success.

Will the frame be available with Rohloff dropouts or will you have to use one of those torque arms?

Hello
-The belt doesn't attach to the same type of cog as the chain does so a belt cog has to be developed. Rohloff at this point will not endorse the cog and there for manufactures are reluctant to develop one. There are some out there that have been produced as one offs but nothing beyond that. It isn't a matter of it working but more Rohloff giving their blessing.
-We will have more specific info about the dropouts and how they will work with each hub in a few weeks.
Keep an eye out for another teaser coming to the blogs in the next week!
Thanks for all of the support and attention you have given us.
PJ
PJ