belt drive?

[crazyGoNuts]

i remeber reading a lengthy debate about the possibilities of using drive belt instead of a chain. it was a long time ago and truthfully i cant remeber what forum it was on
i do remeber that the debate was quashed when somebody realized that there was no way to use a belt because the chainstays were in the way(remebered you have to break a chain to get it on).

then i saw the goat bike in the recent DR 101. The first thing I notice were the chainstays.
then i saw the funky bash-guard and thought that it was a belt drive.
but alas it was not a belt drive bike

you could indeed run a belt drive on this machine

why would you want a belt drive? dunno.
it isnt a weight weenie bike. it would make for a super silent ride. maybe just cuz it can be done... can anyone think of a better reason to do it?

[kennbenny667]

If I recall correctly, Jericho had a belt drive singlespeed out a few summers ago called the Red October. I don't believe it got much past the prototype stage, mostly because of mass production problems. I think the chanistay had something like an S&S coupler on it. Does anyone else recall this?

I question the durability of a belt drive. Will the rubber be able to bear/distribute the stress all around, or will it eventually snap like a rubber band?

[The Rose]

at last years pedro festival i recall a company promoting a shaft drive setup. the only problem was there arent any frames made to accept the shaft contraption, save for the companies own frames which were "low end" at best. and as for the durability of the belt drive, most newer motorcycles are bely driven ( street bikes anyway ) and they seem to take the torque of the high revving crotch rockets just fine. now they just have to figure a way of conecting the ends.

[jonassterling]

Yes Jericho did make a belt drive and probably still does.

As for the complaints about belts-the main problem: they are not as efficent as a chain drive, at least a clean chain drive. It may only be a few precentage points difference, but when you produce less than one horsepower, every little bit counts.

Rose I don't wanna start nothing here but most motercycles still run chains. Alot of cruisers are belt driven and a few tourers also run belts or shafts, and Buell runs belts on all their bikes. But most modern sporty bikes run chains, along with all dirt bikes.

[The Rose]

you got me there but look at almost all the new harleys and mostly all the new jap cruisers. i was mistaken when i noted that the sport bikes run belts. still if they can take the strain from a motorcycle i dont see why they would have a problem handling stress loads from a mountain bike. imagine a world without chain lube. how fantastic.

[jonassterling]

I would not mind giving the belt a try on my SS, but how would you shift a belt drive bike?I would love to say, "just use an internally geared hub, they worked those things out years ago", but they have their own list of problems, including drag, complexity, expense, weight, and funky shifting.

Maybe the new Honda DH bike with the gearbox will breath some new life into the alternative drivetrain market.

[Scott G.]

For those of you who have not seen this, this link below is to a picture of the Sparrow Electric vehicle. These are cool for city use, but they pretty small in highway traffic. They turn on a dime....and are BELT driven.

Sparrow Electric Vehicle (http://www.microcarmuseum.com/tour/corbin-sparrow.html)

:D

[The Rose]

jonassterling: the shaft drive i posted about earlier was used in combination with an internally geared hub. i never used one but i do know that they are heavy and still a little buggy from what i understand. maybe for the belt drive system they could come up with some sort of cetrifical gearing system like the polaris 4 wheelers use.

[Andy in Wi]

Back to belt drives on bikes...
Belts don't make the best devices because at weight, the thing would be flimsy and at stiffness, that thing would probably weigh a ton. Not torsionally stable, and flex would be against you. Besides, making the sprokets would be a pain in the ass on the weight side
-Andy

[donutfan]

I found this oddball bike while kicking around the net. It runs a Kevlar belt that's supposedly good for 50,000 road miles. Their primary concern is getting grease on a commuter's leg I guess.

http://www.strida.com/bike/design.html


-John

[EBasil]

That IS a funky bike! Limited to putt-putt around town, whatnot, it actually looks like a fun little novelty to ride. Certainly, they've designed it to be maintenance-free, but I was surprised how light it turns out to be, considering the wheels, hardware and hubweights.

I wonder if they make a DH version...

[DancingBear]

There's another big problem with a belt drive on a mountainbike: Dirt

Things don't go too well when a pebble or some nice gritty mud gets between the belt and the sprockets. Also, the sprockets have to be built with flanges on both sides so that the belt does not slide off to one side. This adds cost and complexity to the fabrication.

Personally, I never notice that my SS makes any noise. It's more than quiet enough for me.