Originally Posted by
lanman
Look's great to me. The belt...only time will tell, but I'm willing to be a guinea pig. I work at a shop and I've already pre-ordered the bike, should hit in December. I'm told the belts are used in motorcycles and snowmobiles, so hopefully they got the engineering right on this one. Since it's coming in the winter I'm going to start it's beating then and I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Edit: The one major drawback I can see in frame design is the bottom rack mount is attached to the removeable dropout...a potential disaster in case of a flat
I see it as a potentially great winter bike. I know the last time belt drive bikes came up in this forum there was concern about compacted snow building up in the cogs and throwing the belt. I was around snowmobiles some when I was young and they were belt driven. I don't remember that being a problem but it could be that the belts and pulleys weren't as exposed and that made all the difference. I'm guessing it wouldn't be an issue though.
It would need clearance for 35mm studded tires and I'd prefer drops. The big drawback for me is that $1,000.00 is a bit much for a winter beater and would pay for a lot of replacement chains on my current winter bike.
Finally, I know that tension is important when it comes to belts and maybe it doesn't matter as much in this application but I wonder how much of a hassle that makes it to change tires.