DiabloScott

Single speed commuter special:



District SSB
Smart.

I'm guessing the rear disk makes it impossible to rig up as a fixed gear though.

RidingMatthew

can you put a internal geared hub in that bike?

DiabloScott

I don't know but they have an IGH version

District IGH 3 - Trek Bicycle

rmfnla

If it catches on this time we may never see another chain lube thread...

rhm

I recently got one of these:
Downtube 8H Shimano Nexus - Downtube

It's the third folding bike I've had from this company. Pretty happy with them. The belt drive is pretty nice.

Come to think of it, my first folding bike, a Strida, also had a belt drive.

corrado33

What are the disadvantages of a belt drive? Besides having to have a breakaway frame.

EDIT: Oh, they don't shift. Duh.

Internal hubs will never catch on in mainstream or performance. Chains will be around forever. Even today the "best" internal hub, the rohloff can only "match" derailleur performance. And it's many times more expensive.

Because you have to have a breakaway frame, chains and subsequently chain lube will always be around for older bikes

DiabloScott

It's just another option, but quiet and clean are a couple advantages. If you already have 4 or 5 chain-drive bikes, maybe a belt-drive will be an interesting addition... I'd consider it, though I'd rather have it fixed without the disk brakes, but this is the perfect bike for somebody.

Robert C

My bely drive is "clicking" I need to tighten it but the eccentric bottom bracket is real tough to turn. I like it, but the clicking is annoying me.

No, there are no bike shops here (the town I work in) to drop it off at. But, no drive train maintenance for the first 1800 miles is pretty nice.

The other problem with the belt drive is getting a replacement belt. I would like to have a spare; but they are very hard to get.

tjspiel

Nice. I'm happy to see belt drives getting some traction. Would like to have a belt drive on a winter bike at some point.

GamblerGORD53

Well I see a problem right off the bat. Look at the stupid tensioner pushing the belt into a pretzel.
They are not that flexible, even in hot weather.

Eric S.

I was at the big Cross Vegas cyclocross race in Las Vegas last night. A few years ago ('10 or '11) I saw quite a few belt drives but this year, nothing.

Not very many front derailleurs this year, either.

A guy I work with has a Priority city bike with belt drive and 3sp Shimano hub.

ThermionicScott 

Have you ever looked under the hood of a car?

Darth Lefty 

Have you ever thought about how much power an engine spends moving its own valve train and all its accessories?

Darth Lefty 

The most interesting thing about this is that it's not a Gates, and has a tensioner, which a Gates does not.

I'm not seeing where the stays are broken to thread the belt through.

ThermionicScott 

Who cares about those things? The point is that it's very common to use tension pulleys to take up the slack in a belt system and the belts are none the worse for wear many tens or hundreds of thousands of miles later.

Cosmic Hawk

BMC has had one as well. Are people buying these?

Darth Lefty 

I don't know but it would sure help me decide to buy if it had a non drive side crank arm, which is in evidence neither on this bike nor the Trek in the OP

dscheidt

I can't tell if you're serious or not, but the answer is a lot. Several horsepower on many cars.

Darth Lefty 

Oh, much more than that. But @ThermionicScott thought that that the guy he was responding to was talking about reliability, not efficiency, and that I missed his point.

TenSpeedV2

Sure you can. Remove the rear disc brake, flip the wheel and bolt one of these on.

VeloSolo Shop - Disc Hub Mount Cogs and Accessories

Edit - dangit. These are not for belts though. Oops

fietsbob

I note they use an idler to push the belt loop Up, to tension it in spite of having a vertical frame dropout..

Simplifying the Disc mount on the opposite side, it does not have to move, as it might with other designs..

'T.A.B.' is apparently the belt drivetrain Maker , so neither Gates or Continental belt components .

SO ... ask your Trek Dealer For details.

District SSB - Trek Bicycle

" T.A.B. 28t, composite/ Bontrager Satellite Nebula, 68T composite TAB belt sprocket "

hig4s

They have been using CV belt drives shifting systems on snowmobiles as long as I can remember. I had one in the early 70s when I lived in Michigan. I bet they could figure out how to make one small and light enough for bikes if they really wanted to.


Oh wait, they already do. https://www.gizmag.com/nuvinci-n330/36610/

corrado33

You completely missed the point of what I was trying to say. Obviously they make internal hubs. I already mentioned that. Belts do not shift in a traditional sense, and certainly don't shift better than chains. Chains are more versatile. I've ridden one of those CV belt bikes. They're fun, but the tension in the shifter makes it so that you generally only stop on a few different points anyway. It's very hard to make very tiny adjustments.

Oh and "small" and "light" are relative. That thing probably weighs a ton, as most internal hubs do.

DiabloScott

It is an interesting alternate way of solving the problem. That tension pulley though is another reason you couldn't make this into a fixed gear.

The thing I really don't like about this particular Trek though, is that they left all the cable guides on for the IGH version (same frame) - so with the BD version you got a bunch of empty guides... looks dumb. The BMC is way cool looking, but doesn't appear to be intended for commuting.

DiabloScott

Trek and BMC both also erase the valve stems from their photos.