My nearly maintenance free new bike
#26
Full Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: CA
Posts: 218
Bikes: Spot ACME with Shimano Alfine 11 & Gates Carbon Drive
Liked 78 Times
in
24 Posts
It's a small family owned company. I learned something today; I didn't know that it was unusual for for a domestic company to be building aluminum frames.
#27
Sunshine
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Des Moines, IA
Posts: 17,046
Bikes: '18 class built steel roadbike, '19 Fairlight Secan, '88 Schwinn Premis , Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross V4, '89 Novara Trionfo
Liked 8,073 Times
in
4,478 Posts
Yeah. The vast majority build with steel or titanium. You then have a handful that use carbon and a handful of aluminum too.
Likes For mstateglfr:
#28
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: St Peters, Missouri
Posts: 30,225
Bikes: Catrike 559 I own some others but they don't get ridden very much.
Liked 645 Times
in
366 Posts
The question is: Does it matter? If one drivetrain consumes two watts of energy and another just one, that's twice as much energy loss but it's still not enough for most people to notice subjectively.
__________________
My greatest fear is all of my kids standing around my coffin and talking about "how sensible" dad was.
My greatest fear is all of my kids standing around my coffin and talking about "how sensible" dad was.
Likes For Retro Grouch:
Likes For DMC707:
#30
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Posts: 5,396
Bikes: Too many to list
Liked 1,127 Times
in
748 Posts
I bought this bike about a month ago and I think I'm in love. I've been riding a bike for 60+ years and I was hoping to find one that didn't require all the usual maintenance. This is my Spot ACME belt drive bike. It's made in Colorado and has a Gates Carbon drive that's lasts four times as long as a conventional bike because the belt doesn't stretch the way a chain does. It also has a Shimano Alfine 11 speed shifter with the gears sealed inside the rear hub. Because it is belt driven and the gears aren't exposed, the bike is super quiet. The only routine maintenance needed is to do an oil change (50ml) on the rear hub every 7K miles. I'm as pleased as I can be with this thing. No more cleaning and oiling a chain, adjusting a derailleur and hearing a chain ride the gears!
Nice bike !
Likes For DMC707:
#31
Veteran, Pacifist
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Seattle area
Posts: 13,837
Bikes: Bikes??? Thought this was social media?!?
Liked 5,855 Times
in
2,507 Posts
[MENTION=380112]Route 66[/MENTION] - nice ride.
Bike maintenance - best retirement hobby, short of riding them all.
Something about working on nice vintage bikes keeps it from being burdensome maintenance. 👍
Bike maintenance - best retirement hobby, short of riding them all.
Something about working on nice vintage bikes keeps it from being burdensome maintenance. 👍
__________________
Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
Likes For Wildwood:
#32
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 6,501
Bikes: Colnago, Van Dessel, Factor, Cervelo, Ritchey
Liked 8,305 Times
in
3,299 Posts
#33
When I first got it, it thought that there was a certain amount of drag vs. my previous bike (Cannondale Quick carbon 1). When I got back from that ride I put it on my stand and noticed that the brakes were rubbing. I centered the the discs around the rotors so that the wheels spun freely and took it out again. This time I didn't notice any drag at all. In terms of absolute efficiency, I don't know if a belt drive can match a conventional drivetrain yet or we'd be seeing the pros using them.
Likes For PeteHski:
#36
No worries. It just so happens when I was an engineering student back in the late 80's I built a test rig to measure efficiency of HTD belt drives (like yours) vs the old style trapezoidal toothed belts that are now pretty much extinct. Power transfer efficiency is something like 97-98%. Chains are typically in the 96-97% range depending on lube etc. Not much in it. But I believe hub gears can bring the overall drivetrain efficiency down by up to 5%. But which is worse? A wet, dirty chain drive or a clean sealed hub? Probably not much in it and likely some overlap in extremes.
#37
Full Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: CA
Posts: 218
Bikes: Spot ACME with Shimano Alfine 11 & Gates Carbon Drive
Liked 78 Times
in
24 Posts
No worries. It just so happens when I was an engineering student back in the late 80's I built a test rig to measure efficiency of HTD belt drives (like yours) vs the old style trapezoidal toothed belts that are now pretty much extinct. Power transfer efficiency is something like 97-98%. Chains are typically in the 96-97% range depending on lube etc. Not much in it. But I believe hub gears can bring the overall drivetrain efficiency down by up to 5%. But which is worse? A wet, dirty chain drive or a clean sealed hub? Probably not much in it and likely some overlap in extremes.
Likes For Route 66:
#38
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 15,929
Bikes: 2015 Workswell 066, 2017 Workswell 093, 2014 Dawes Sheila, 1983 Cannondale 500, 1984 Raleigh Olympian, 2007 Cannondale Rize 4, 2017 Fuji Sportif 1 LE
Liked 3,933 Times
in
2,053 Posts
I'd assume the IGH is both heavier and less efficient. So what? A pound of extra weight isn't what keeps riding from being fun, unless you like to race your friends and their bikes all weigh less---and then the weight is more fun, because it gives you an excuse for losing.
The trade-off are clear---the bike is Always ready to ride with nothing more than a squeeze of the tires to make sure they are aired up. After a ride the rider can park it and forget it and it will be just as ready whenever s/he picks it up again.
The lost half-watt isn't what's keeping the rider form climbing that next hill or whatever .... it is Not a high-performance bike.
But just as a modern household sedan can outlap a lot of performance cars from 30 years ago, if driven to its limits---most modern bikes have performance capacity Way beyond what most riders use. (If you aren't sliding and saving the back end at 65 mph on fast downhills or sprinting at two thousand watts .... ) This rider has sacrificed some of the extremes of performance s/he would never have used anyway to have a trouble-free, always-on bicycle.
Tools for the job. My best touring bike had no high-performance parts .... it was cobbled together from junkyard Schwinn and even Huffy parts and a lot of mystery parts .... but it got me 100 miles per day for eleven straight days with 80+ pounds of load and the only issue was a worn-out rear tire. Saving grams and worrying over drivetrain inefficiency wasn't on my mind.
The trade-off are clear---the bike is Always ready to ride with nothing more than a squeeze of the tires to make sure they are aired up. After a ride the rider can park it and forget it and it will be just as ready whenever s/he picks it up again.
The lost half-watt isn't what's keeping the rider form climbing that next hill or whatever .... it is Not a high-performance bike.
But just as a modern household sedan can outlap a lot of performance cars from 30 years ago, if driven to its limits---most modern bikes have performance capacity Way beyond what most riders use. (If you aren't sliding and saving the back end at 65 mph on fast downhills or sprinting at two thousand watts .... ) This rider has sacrificed some of the extremes of performance s/he would never have used anyway to have a trouble-free, always-on bicycle.
Tools for the job. My best touring bike had no high-performance parts .... it was cobbled together from junkyard Schwinn and even Huffy parts and a lot of mystery parts .... but it got me 100 miles per day for eleven straight days with 80+ pounds of load and the only issue was a worn-out rear tire. Saving grams and worrying over drivetrain inefficiency wasn't on my mind.
#39
Full Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: CA
Posts: 218
Bikes: Spot ACME with Shimano Alfine 11 & Gates Carbon Drive
Liked 78 Times
in
24 Posts
I'd assume the IGH is both heavier and less efficient. So what? A pound of extra weight isn't what keeps riding from being fun, unless you like to race your friends and their bikes all weigh less---and then the weight is more fun, because it gives you an excuse for losing.
The trade-off are clear---the bike is Always ready to ride with nothing more than a squeeze of the tires to make sure they are aired up. After a ride the rider can park it and forget it and it will be just as ready whenever s/he picks it up again.
The lost half-watt isn't what's keeping the rider form climbing that next hill or whatever .... it is Not a high-performance bike.
But just as a modern household sedan can outlap a lot of performance cars from 30 years ago, if driven to its limits---most modern bikes have performance capacity Way beyond what most riders use. (If you aren't sliding and saving the back end at 65 mph on fast downhills or sprinting at two thousand watts .... ) This rider has sacrificed some of the extremes of performance s/he would never have used anyway to have a trouble-free, always-on bicycle.
The trade-off are clear---the bike is Always ready to ride with nothing more than a squeeze of the tires to make sure they are aired up. After a ride the rider can park it and forget it and it will be just as ready whenever s/he picks it up again.
The lost half-watt isn't what's keeping the rider form climbing that next hill or whatever .... it is Not a high-performance bike.
But just as a modern household sedan can outlap a lot of performance cars from 30 years ago, if driven to its limits---most modern bikes have performance capacity Way beyond what most riders use. (If you aren't sliding and saving the back end at 65 mph on fast downhills or sprinting at two thousand watts .... ) This rider has sacrificed some of the extremes of performance s/he would never have used anyway to have a trouble-free, always-on bicycle.
#40
SE Wis
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 10,818
Bikes: '68 Raleigh Sprite, '02 Raleigh C500, '84 Raleigh Gran Prix, '91 Trek 400, 2013 Novara Randonee, 1990 Trek 970
Liked 3,658 Times
in
2,204 Posts
Likes For daverup:
#42
Full Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: CA
Posts: 218
Bikes: Spot ACME with Shimano Alfine 11 & Gates Carbon Drive
Liked 78 Times
in
24 Posts
Route 66 I've read reviews and been to the website for your new bike. It looks like a really well done design, Congrats!
#43
Guest
#44
Banned.
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Vegemite Island
Posts: 4,128
Bikes: 2017 Surly Troll with XT Drive Train, 2017 Merida Big Nine XT Edition, 2016 Giant Toughroad SLR 2, 1995 Trek 830
Liked 312 Times
in
220 Posts
An interesting question: We live in a digital world in which an ordinary guy can measure things like drive train drag with pretty good accuracy. Once you can measure it, there are always going to be winners and losers. Bicycle people love arguing over such minutia.
The question is: Does it matter? If one drivetrain consumes two watts of energy and another just one, that's twice as much energy loss but it's still not enough for most people to notice subjectively.
The question is: Does it matter? If one drivetrain consumes two watts of energy and another just one, that's twice as much energy loss but it's still not enough for most people to notice subjectively.
I'm certainly not insinuating any kind of deal breaker, I am genuinely interested in internal hubs, so appreciate the feedback from those who ride them.
Likes For ColonelSanders:
#45
SE Wis
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 10,818
Bikes: '68 Raleigh Sprite, '02 Raleigh C500, '84 Raleigh Gran Prix, '91 Trek 400, 2013 Novara Randonee, 1990 Trek 970
Liked 3,658 Times
in
2,204 Posts
Are you saying a state that covers 10 degrees of latitude and longitude and 15K feet of elevation change might have varied weather?
#46
Palmer
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Parts Unknown
Posts: 8,797
Bikes: Mike Melton custom, Alex Moulton AM, Dahon Curl
Liked 1,978 Times
in
1,138 Posts
Likes For tcs:
#47
Riding after dark
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: on the trails
Posts: 66
Bikes: Raleigh Tripper (coaster brake), Raleigh One Way, '97 Specialized Rockhopper
Liked 32 Times
in
25 Posts
Doh. Just when I thought the Trek District 4 was just what I wanted now I see this. The Spot is a nice looking bike and looks to compete directly with the District 4. Obviously there are some differences but both bikes have Gates belt, internal hub shifting (11-speed vs. 8-speed), aluminium frame (Spot has carbon fork if I browsed the specs correctly), and both bikes look to be around-the-town cruisers.
Likes For rumstove:
#48
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Mission Viejo
Posts: 6,006
Bikes: 1986 Cannondale SR400 (Flat bar commuter), 1988 Cannondale Criterium XTR, 1992 Serotta T-Max, 1995 Trek 970
Liked 2,277 Times
in
1,393 Posts
But in other ways it can become like doing your own oil changes on your car. One day you say, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
It hasn’t happen with my bikes, but that day may, or may not, come.
John
#50
Guest