You might want to contact Gates directly at carbondrive@gates.com. I did and, as I mentioned above, the response was postive. I think the more stories that they hear about this aluminum cog failure might help to light a fire under their butts to get the steel replacements onto the market.

Civia BB & Crankset?
 

A question to any Civia Alfine owners...

Exactly what crank, bb and spindle length are used?

I'm doing an Alfine converion on my SS belt drive and am having issues with the belt line.

OK, here's an odd question. I'm planning to build THE BIKE in 2011--you know, the one that will be perfect in every way so I can stop buying bikes ;) The Bryant has absolutely everything I want, except the smallest size is 49cm. I'm normally in the 46-47cm range. According to Civia's website, the closest dealer is nearly a 3 hour drive from me, so trying one out is not an option. Is it possible to build one of these up with 650b or 26" wheels, and if so, would it make much of a difference in standover height?

I guess I'm also basing this off the fact that my girlfriend has a 49cm Steamroller that's a tad too tall for me. But the top tube on the Bryant slopes gently, so it's possible it wouldn't be a problem...I don't know.

With more than a year of real world experience behind the belt drive, and the introduction of steel sprockets for the original system, do you think the new centerline system will have a steel counterpart for igh driven bikes?

The Spot acme in the pics above is show with what looks like an aluminum sprocketed centerline belt drive.

Same problem with all-aluminum Gates cog
 

I just had the same failure of the Gates all-aluminum cog that's been described here by others. I have about 1000 miles on a 3-month old Civia Bryant and while pedaling up a small hill, heard a pop and thereafter couldn't power the back wheel in any gear. Checking the bike after a six mile walk back home, I had sheared the three aluminum tangs on the cog. I emailed Gates at the address above last Thursday but haven't heard anything back. Took the bike back the shop where I bought it and they're handling the repair.

Don't know why Gates and/or Civia didn't recall this part - it seems irresponsible to me. I don't know how long my bike had been in the shop before I bought it but Gates clearly has know about this issue for over a year now.

Alfine crank is External BB and the spindle is fixed in the right crank arm..
Gates kit offers a different chainring to bolt on.

I am a week away from getting my new Bryant 58cm. I decided (after test-riding a Kingfield] that I would eventually want to upgrade most of the parts on the off-the-shelf Bryant Alfine, so I had my LBS pull together the parts I really wanted (like Alfine 11, dynamo, upright bars, 36h rims, and CenterTrack. Gates CenterTrack is MIA right now (problems getting shipment of rear pulleys) and they are out of (or won't sell) the old pulleys. I am starting to wonder if the problem getting the rear pulleys for the GTX system (CenterTrack) has something to do with the CDS (original) pulley problems. Instead of waiting another three months (that's how long I have been waiting for CenterTrack) -- I am going to get my bike with an "old fashioned" chain using 44 front chainring and 22 rear cog (out-of-shape legs vs. San Francisco hills), and swap out the three parts for CenterTrack when Gates is up to speed with their supply chain.

Too rich for my blood, but it sure does look nice. Switch out the hub for a Rohloff or Alfine-11 and it would make a great touring bike also.

As mentioned previously I built my own custom ti belt drive bike with an alfine8. Only recently did my gates 24t alfine pulley start to die. It was made up of the pulley, snap ring and the 3 lug internal. The internal 3 lug is what gave way, started with a little movement then gradually got worse to around 4mm of radial movement. No sheering or violent breakage. Probably only had about 4000km on it, however it was replaced without question by gates Europe (they've always been super helpful). The replacement is a newly designed one piece unit, but can't comment on it as i went back to a ss belt setup.

If anyone is suffering from creaking, try dropping your crankset bolts in some engine oil.

I also had the same failure, just over a week ago. I'd put in about 2000km on my Bryant with the belt (I switched to a chain for a while and then switched back.) Mine failed just pedalling hard to make a traffic light, luckily I was only a couple of blocks from my office. Ironically while I was standing there by the side of the Hornby Street bike lane wondering what the hell just happened, a couple of people came to ask me about the bike.

I mailed carbondrive@gates.com and got a reply within 24 hours, saying they'd replace the part for free, so you might want to try again. I did include a picture of the sheared part, so that might help.

I'm guessing Gates didn't recall the part because there was a hope that the failures only occurred with heavier riders, and that most parts wouldn't fail. But if true it does seem that hope was misplaced, I'm only 170lbs, though living in North Vancouver I am grinding my way up hills pretty frequently - but it does seem likely that all of these sprockets will fail eventually and probably sooner rather than later.

+1 to this. I haven't tried this exact technique, but I had problems with creaking for a long time but ultimately after quite a bit of experimenting I traced the problem to the chainring bolts. You definitely need to pay more attention to torque and greasing with them than on a chain drivetrain.

You can see in this video how my rear pulley failed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgFgmpEf1M8

You can imagine the click-clack on every crank rotation :notamused: and the change in belt tension.

I ride one.
Here is my assessment.
The belt and the Alfine = super low maintenance. I can feel a little power loss with the belt, but it is silent and easy to maintain (especially with snowy, rainy, muddy commutes)
The shifter is adequate but is not nearly as responsive as what I am used to.
The BB5 brakes work poorly with road levers. They are awful to adjust. I suggest upgrading to BB7s as I did. (BB7s are great btw).
The frame is not light. This combined with the weighty rear hub, make for a heavy bike.
Bike handles heavy loads (40 lbs of groceries) comfortably.
The bike is not very fun or zippy, but the ease of maintenance, comfortable geometry, and all-weather stopping BB7s make it the best commuting bike that I have owned.
If I were to do it all over again, I would consider the Trek Soho Deluxe as well. For the time being, internal hub gearing and crappy disc brakes work better with flat bars.

I am thinking of buying one. Your review has been really helpful. Thanks.

I am asking the bike shop to quote for upgrade to BB7 disc brakes as the BB5s are crap and also Alfine 11 spd. I would ultimately like Rohloff but at this present time it is too costly.

The Bryant is named after a lovely bike boulevard in South Minneapolis: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6110/6...69f730d8_z.jpg

If anyone is interested, I saw that my LBS had the Kingsfield (lower end Belt Drive by Civia) on closeout in medium-larger size. $830 http://thehubbikecoop.org/products-p...via-kingfield/

Alfine group, on Shimano's site shows a Hydraulic disc..

...but the Civia Bryant has drop handlebars, which basically rules out hydros especially when combined with the need for an Alfine-compatible shifter. Hence mechanical disk brakes.

Of course, if you go to a flat bar, then you can use hydros. But perhaps in that case you wouldn't want to start from a Civia Bryant - unless you really, really loved steel, a Spot Acme might be a better choice.