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Old 09-07-08 | 03:45 PM
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StephenH
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Joined: Sep 2007
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From: Dallas area, Texas
What I see on the web page is that the belt-drive system is American made, I don't see that said about the bike itself anywhere.

My initial impression is to avoid something like this that isn't in common use. There have been a number of gimmick-type bikes trying to solve problems that didn't exist. (Auto-shifting, for example, or 2-wheel drive, or shaft drive, etc.) In each case, the bicycles tend to be overpriced, and seem to be sold exclusively to people that don't know anything about bicycles. They may or may not work, but don't seem to be good values, at least.

There has been some development work on high-performance belt-drive bikes, but regular chains work well enough that it's hard to improve on them substantially. Sand on a belt might be just as bad as sand on a chain.

You might also check into full chain cases, and into different kinds of drier lubricants. For that matter, you can get an old 3-speed bike and for $30 or so, you could change out both sprockets and the chain every year or so as needed.

You mention your Chinese-built bikes being broken. The problems I've had with a cheap bike were due to it being cheap, not specifically Chinese. I think there's some high-dollar frames that come out of China and especially Taiwan, so place of origin is not a complete indicator.
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