Originally Posted by
pdlamb
How many miles (and months) did you have on that belt?
What's the recommended maintenance replacement interval?
They don't really give a replacement interval. STRIDA only has some blip on the mileage that kevlar belts last on cars. Memory says that some of the foreign STRIDA websites say something on the order of 10s of thousands of kilometers. (50000 km?)
I use the bike as a multimodal commuter. So every commuting day is roughly 3 miles of riding plus some occasional errands downtown; e.g., see my dentist. But I don't go into the office every day and certainly not during the height of the pandemic. Upper end of an estimate would be 4-5 thousand miles over the last 5 years.
https://www.strida.com/faq/
Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
My friend recently replaced his Gates belt and ring on his CoMotion. The old had MAJOR wear after 4 or 5 years. He was beginning to have some slip under pedal pressure. When i looked at the old parts I thought "duh, of course you'd have skipping" as they were pretty trashed.
One concern i have had with belts is how they are marketed and who uses them. The claims of "maintenance free, long lasting..." tend to appeal to those who don't want to do the maintenance on their bikes. Some of these bikes see a lot of exposure and hard hours. A mix of high expectations and wanting to do less work often can be disappointing when the inevitable happens.
My suggestion is to learn that your next bely might only be good for about 4 years of safe and reliable use. I would consider replacing the cog and ring if there's any wear showing at all. Belt tension should be checked more often than annually. Make sure that the alignment of the cog and ring are spot on. belts don't tolerate meshing on off plane cogs or rings well (far less than chains do). Of course all the other standard parts that make up a gear system need to be kept up. With the high tension of the belt some hub and bottom bracket bearings can wear quicker than with a chain.
Lastly if you want this bike to be good for many more years I strongly suggest you get a bunch of spares, before they become obsolete and unavailable. Andy
Yeah. I've had a conversation with some STRIDA users and the best theory is that a little too much play in the belt developed such that when I started to pedal, the teeth gave way. So yes ... check the tension more regularly and make small adjustments to keep it within the appropriate tolerance.
Some additional context. This happened after stopping at a light. So there was probably a lot of torque on the drive afterward.