THE PROJECT
To be honest I can't remember what inspired me to start this one, I do recall it was accelerated during a cycle tour in Croatia. We met a couple that had emigrated there and had built a sort of 'super gran-fondo Tandem; amongst other technical bits of Tandem lightweight kit it had a belt in place of the connecting chain. I wondered if it could be used on a solo and spent a few hours when we got back surfing the internet to look at options. Everything I read suggested they’re very strong, don’t need any maintenance because they don’t stretch or wear like a chain and don’t need any oil so are less messy. There were claims them being more efficient due to the toothed belt ‘fitting’ exactly the notches on the rear and front pulley’s too. The ‘downside’ which is obvious I guess, is that you can’t break or join it so fitting it into the rear triangle of a frame meant a break in the frame somewhere. Two main ways of doing this; retrofitting a coupler in a steel frame or getting a new one made with the same solution, these can be anywhere on the drive side of the rear triangle; on the seat stay or chain (belt ;-)) stay. Other frames had bits of the rear dropout that could be removed too.
THE CHOICES
The main (maybe only) manufacture of bike belts and components is Gates Carbon Drive Systems in the US. There’s loads of useful info on their site including numerous links to bike and frame manufactures. Sadly there are very few in the UK and only a handful in Europe so intermittently for the next few months I looked around for something suitable. Hopefully this doesn’t come across as elitist but I’ve been cycling competitively for over Thirty years now and a heavy relaxed angle frame doesn’t really inspire me and unfortunately the bulk of belt drive bikes seemed to be of that nature. There was also the issue that a lot were hub geared for my project this just added weight, cost and complexity.
I found a few possibilities; a Trek District (either as a complete bike or a frame) the downside was they’re a compact frame with a tall head tube sold ready built with flat bars so I’d either need to put up with a more upright position or using a radical sloping stem. The spec weight also looked very heavy especially for an aluminium frame. On the extravagant side there was a model called the Trek District Carbon, a version of the Madone frame complete with belt drive and ultra light wheels. It weighed in at about 14lbs. I really wanted one of these, but aside from the list price of over £2K it was impractical, no mudguard clearance and probably too light for riding to work every day. There was also the issue with they weren’t made anymore and I couldn’t find one!
The other main contender was a Felt Footprint. It was advertised as ‘belt compatible’ having a break in the seatstay but were sold built up with a chain on but should be possible to convert easily enough. They’re carbon and a standard frame geometry and although the list price was around £1600 they seemed to go for cheaper, presumably because and this was the main problem, they weren’t being made any more. There was the other slight issue with the mudguard clearance but I was trying to ignore that one.
Failing these, there were frame builders who could make me something suitable, my favoured a Titanium Burls frame, seemed extravagant at about £1K for the frame though.
SEARCHING
So, I put some auto searches into eBay and tried to be patient, eventually there was a listing for one of the Felt bikes but it was only 52cm, ideally I wanted a 56cm, I might have got away with a 54 but even though I really wanted one I didn’t think I could get away with it.
A few weeks later there was a list for a Felt Footprint finishing kit (wheels, bars, saddle, chainset and seatpin), I put in a bid on the basis that if I eventually got a frame I would need the other bits and was pleasantly surprised to win it for about £200. Presumably someone had wrecked a frame and returned the bike because the parts when they arrived were next to new.
Eventually I found an advert on eBay from a company in Italy called Switch Bikes, at the time the frame wasn’t on their website but is now, branded as ‘Urban’. The frame specs looked perfect and Andrew from Switch was really helpful answering my questions. It was close clearance enough to use normal road brakes but had clearance to squeeze full length mudguards in. Most importantly it had removable horizontal dropouts.
A few weeks later it arrived, the courier thought someone had cheated me and sent an empty box, but the frame really was that light. It has a carbon steerer on the forks and the frame was finished in a satin sheen with the decals under the finish.
THE BUILD
Next step was to measure the length of the chainstay, there is a calculator on the Gates website to work out the parts you need, the most critical being the size gear you want and then the appropriate belt length. Probably my biggest mistake was to measure the actual chainstay on its shortest dimension; I.E from the centre point of the bottom bracket shell to the first point the rear wheel axle could go. I thought this would allow for me to tension the belt up and take up any slack as it began to wear.
I decided to try to stick to my normal gear of 70” or 44x17. The best option from this was a 55 front pulley and a 21 rear couple with a 113t belt. There is a choice of Belt system; the conventional and first one they made which is a basic toothed belt and pulleys with a channel for the belt to sit it. The newer and recommend model is called centertrak which uses a central narrow rail in the centre of the belt that guides it onto a cut in the centre of the teeth on the pulley’s. This saves having to have the shoulders on the pulley’s but ensures the belt always stays in place.
The front pulley’s are standard 130BCD chainrings, the rear in a variety of fittings but I wanted fixed wheel so just got the standard fixed thread version. I paid about $200 for Pulley’s and belt from the US but had to pay the customs charges on top of that.
Whilst I waited for the parts I put the bike together with the remainder of the parts. The box arrived from the US and my first challenge was that my single speed chainset was already quite close to the chainstay with the additional width of the belt pulley it wouldn’t fit. I tried to space the bottom bracket out with spacers but it was so far that I couldn’t get enough thread in the other side. Few moments of panic until I saw an Ultegra C’set I’d swapped on my road bike. So I put the pulley on the big ring side of the crank, used the shorter crank bolts out of the Felt one and it lined up perfectly (the Ultegra was lighter too!).
Last job to put the belt in and tension it, the single bolt on the seatstay lug for the dropouts came out easy enough and I only had to stress the frame a small amount to squeeze the belt in. That’s when I realised my mistake; to get the belt on you have to put it over the pulley’s and tension it, with my measurements the belt was too short to just place on top. I ignored the warnings and put it on like you would a chain, start it going and turn the chainset. It did actually go on, and sort of fitted but the wheel was as far forward as it would go and the belt so tight that it didn’t really spin very easily. I rode it for about a week like that hoping it would bed in, but it didn’t. Eventually I gave up and ordered a 115t belt after cursing a bit!
When the new belt arrived, I fitted in 5 mins. There is a lot you can read about belt tensioning; apps you can get for iPhones that work like guitar tuning with frequencies, I even ordered the tool from Gates to check it. But to be honest it’s the easiest thing in the world, just push your fingers in between the seat tube and the tyre push the wheel back until there is no slack in the belt and do the wheel nuts up.
THE RESULT
The bike is amazing, it’s now my favourite bike; as light as my proper race track bike, just as stiff, completely silent and ridiculously smooth. The only problem is people can’t hear it and pedestrians have a habit of stepping off the pavement in front of me.
To be honest, chains on fixed wheel aren’t really too bad but you have to look after them. They do wear quicker than you think exposed to the elements though, then once they start to go they get clunky and give you the odd scare when belting down a hill at 140rpm picking up the odd link on a worn sprocket tooth. The belt does none of that, I thought it might be slightly soft, but in reality it feels more direct than a chain, there is no play whatsoever, track stands are the easiest thing in the world now, I’ll put flat pedals on one day and learn to ride backwards, I’m sure it’s possible on this. It also climbs like its motor assisted, the lack of weight is such an advantage, but the very best thing is it is soooo clean. You can get a sponge and a bucket of water, clean it and still have clean hands after.
To be honest I can't remember what inspired me to start this one, I do recall it was accelerated during a cycle tour in Croatia. We met a couple that had emigrated there and had built a sort of 'super gran-fondo Tandem; amongst other technical bits of Tandem lightweight kit it had a belt in place of the connecting chain. I wondered if it could be used on a solo and spent a few hours when we got back surfing the internet to look at options. Everything I read suggested they’re very strong, don’t need any maintenance because they don’t stretch or wear like a chain and don’t need any oil so are less messy. There were claims them being more efficient due to the toothed belt ‘fitting’ exactly the notches on the rear and front pulley’s too. The ‘downside’ which is obvious I guess, is that you can’t break or join it so fitting it into the rear triangle of a frame meant a break in the frame somewhere. Two main ways of doing this; retrofitting a coupler in a steel frame or getting a new one made with the same solution, these can be anywhere on the drive side of the rear triangle; on the seat stay or chain (belt ;-)) stay. Other frames had bits of the rear dropout that could be removed too.
THE CHOICES
The main (maybe only) manufacture of bike belts and components is Gates Carbon Drive Systems in the US. There’s loads of useful info on their site including numerous links to bike and frame manufactures. Sadly there are very few in the UK and only a handful in Europe so intermittently for the next few months I looked around for something suitable. Hopefully this doesn’t come across as elitist but I’ve been cycling competitively for over Thirty years now and a heavy relaxed angle frame doesn’t really inspire me and unfortunately the bulk of belt drive bikes seemed to be of that nature. There was also the issue that a lot were hub geared for my project this just added weight, cost and complexity.
I found a few possibilities; a Trek District (either as a complete bike or a frame) the downside was they’re a compact frame with a tall head tube sold ready built with flat bars so I’d either need to put up with a more upright position or using a radical sloping stem. The spec weight also looked very heavy especially for an aluminium frame. On the extravagant side there was a model called the Trek District Carbon, a version of the Madone frame complete with belt drive and ultra light wheels. It weighed in at about 14lbs. I really wanted one of these, but aside from the list price of over £2K it was impractical, no mudguard clearance and probably too light for riding to work every day. There was also the issue with they weren’t made anymore and I couldn’t find one!
The other main contender was a Felt Footprint. It was advertised as ‘belt compatible’ having a break in the seatstay but were sold built up with a chain on but should be possible to convert easily enough. They’re carbon and a standard frame geometry and although the list price was around £1600 they seemed to go for cheaper, presumably because and this was the main problem, they weren’t being made any more. There was the other slight issue with the mudguard clearance but I was trying to ignore that one.
Failing these, there were frame builders who could make me something suitable, my favoured a Titanium Burls frame, seemed extravagant at about £1K for the frame though.
SEARCHING
So, I put some auto searches into eBay and tried to be patient, eventually there was a listing for one of the Felt bikes but it was only 52cm, ideally I wanted a 56cm, I might have got away with a 54 but even though I really wanted one I didn’t think I could get away with it.
A few weeks later there was a list for a Felt Footprint finishing kit (wheels, bars, saddle, chainset and seatpin), I put in a bid on the basis that if I eventually got a frame I would need the other bits and was pleasantly surprised to win it for about £200. Presumably someone had wrecked a frame and returned the bike because the parts when they arrived were next to new.
Eventually I found an advert on eBay from a company in Italy called Switch Bikes, at the time the frame wasn’t on their website but is now, branded as ‘Urban’. The frame specs looked perfect and Andrew from Switch was really helpful answering my questions. It was close clearance enough to use normal road brakes but had clearance to squeeze full length mudguards in. Most importantly it had removable horizontal dropouts.
A few weeks later it arrived, the courier thought someone had cheated me and sent an empty box, but the frame really was that light. It has a carbon steerer on the forks and the frame was finished in a satin sheen with the decals under the finish.
THE BUILD
Next step was to measure the length of the chainstay, there is a calculator on the Gates website to work out the parts you need, the most critical being the size gear you want and then the appropriate belt length. Probably my biggest mistake was to measure the actual chainstay on its shortest dimension; I.E from the centre point of the bottom bracket shell to the first point the rear wheel axle could go. I thought this would allow for me to tension the belt up and take up any slack as it began to wear.
The front pulley’s are standard 130BCD chainrings, the rear in a variety of fittings but I wanted fixed wheel so just got the standard fixed thread version. I paid about $200 for Pulley’s and belt from the US but had to pay the customs charges on top of that.
Whilst I waited for the parts I put the bike together with the remainder of the parts. The box arrived from the US and my first challenge was that my single speed chainset was already quite close to the chainstay with the additional width of the belt pulley it wouldn’t fit. I tried to space the bottom bracket out with spacers but it was so far that I couldn’t get enough thread in the other side. Few moments of panic until I saw an Ultegra C’set I’d swapped on my road bike. So I put the pulley on the big ring side of the crank, used the shorter crank bolts out of the Felt one and it lined up perfectly (the Ultegra was lighter too!).
Last job to put the belt in and tension it, the single bolt on the seatstay lug for the dropouts came out easy enough and I only had to stress the frame a small amount to squeeze the belt in. That’s when I realised my mistake; to get the belt on you have to put it over the pulley’s and tension it, with my measurements the belt was too short to just place on top. I ignored the warnings and put it on like you would a chain, start it going and turn the chainset. It did actually go on, and sort of fitted but the wheel was as far forward as it would go and the belt so tight that it didn’t really spin very easily. I rode it for about a week like that hoping it would bed in, but it didn’t. Eventually I gave up and ordered a 115t belt after cursing a bit!
When the new belt arrived, I fitted in 5 mins. There is a lot you can read about belt tensioning; apps you can get for iPhones that work like guitar tuning with frequencies, I even ordered the tool from Gates to check it. But to be honest it’s the easiest thing in the world, just push your fingers in between the seat tube and the tyre push the wheel back until there is no slack in the belt and do the wheel nuts up.
THE RESULT
The bike is amazing, it’s now my favourite bike; as light as my proper race track bike, just as stiff, completely silent and ridiculously smooth. The only problem is people can’t hear it and pedestrians have a habit of stepping off the pavement in front of me.
To be honest, chains on fixed wheel aren’t really too bad but you have to look after them. They do wear quicker than you think exposed to the elements though, then once they start to go they get clunky and give you the odd scare when belting down a hill at 140rpm picking up the odd link on a worn sprocket tooth. The belt does none of that, I thought it might be slightly soft, but in reality it feels more direct than a chain, there is no play whatsoever, track stands are the easiest thing in the world now, I’ll put flat pedals on one day and learn to ride backwards, I’m sure it’s possible on this. It also climbs like its motor assisted, the lack of weight is such an advantage, but the very best thing is it is soooo clean. You can get a sponge and a bucket of water, clean it and still have clean hands after.
