If you're a tinkerer, and you like swapping tires, doing all your own maintenance, etc, then I agree with you 100%.

However, my bike is my car. I'd no sooner swap out my own bike tire than I'd swap out my own car tire. Not that I can't, it's just not something I enjoy doing. My hub-geared, belt drive, hydraulic-disc bike is incredibly difficult to maintain... but I also just bring it in to my local bike shop once per winter. That one trip is all the maintenance it needs for the 3200 miles I put on it per year, mostly in the rain. I'd never go back to lubing a chain every week, putting new pads on every month, replacing the chain every 3, etc. 6 months after I bought this bike I gave away my repair stand and it was glorious.

>I'd no sooner swap out my own bike tire than I'd swap out my own car tire.

In my neighborhood I get a flat every other month. If I had to pay someone else to replace inner tubes it'd cost as much as driving a car.

What tires do you run? That'll happen to me unless I run touring tires. With Schwalbe Marathons front and back, I never get flats.

You can see my (lengthy) post here about my experience with belt drive, but I was CONSTANTLY getting flats on my Ghost; tried the tires it came with, added tire liners, added slime tubes, nothing worked well until I got the (heavy as a tank) Schwalbe Marathons. Now I want to get the slime tubes out but don't want to remove the tire to do so. But yeah, another vote for "not changing your own tires isn't really an option". Even though its virtually impossible to change tires 'in the field' on my ghost.

There are also very tough plastic liners you can put between the tire and the inner tube. At some point picked up a 1 cm cut in the the tire that this inner layer not only prevented a puncture but kept the whole tire/tube/wheel together until I noticed it by happenstance weeks later. Search for Mr. Tuffy liner but there are others.

Tried them, felt bad, was harder to drive. The same goes for stuff like Schwalbe Marathon. When i look back into the times where i bicycled more, i wonder how i managed with the tires which had just a thin mesh of wires embedded? I feel like the modern stuff has more planned obsolescence built in. Tubeless makes no sense economically to me, so i go with a small can of breakdown spray.

Continental Top Contact II 37mm front, Continental GP Urban 35mm rear. (Rear fender has less clearance)

Have you tried tubeless? I've run them on mountain bikes for yonks, and have now done so on my (non-racing) road bike for about 2 years now with very few complaints. (My race-race bike is fitted with tubs)

They can be messy, but I've lost count of the number of self-healed punctures I've had over the years. A small loss of pressure and off you go.

+1 for tubeless -- I switched a few weeks ago after getting sick of weekly punctures in Phoenix -- already saved me a boatload of time and trouble.

Currently running WTB Venture 47c [changed from Horizons] on a 650b 'gravel bike', fantastic stuff, gets me where I wanna go.

> If you're a tinkerer, and you like swapping tires, doing all your own maintenance, etc, then I agree with you 100%.

Oh no not at all! I hate swapping tires. I live in an expensive and cold country. Swapping bike tires costs $50. I couldn’t afford that twice a year (because of winter tires) I have to do it out of desperation which is why it’s more work than the maintenance benefit I get.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you are American. If you have quick release wheels and a new tube (rather than patching the old) you can literally replace a tube in 4 minutes. I’ve timed it.

If your bike is your main form of transport and you can’t change tubes, you need to have two bikes. Unless you live next to a 24 hour bike shop...

Another disadvantage is repairability. If your chain snaps you can fix it with a quick link or a pin and a little multitool with chain tool functionality. If your belt snaps you‘re screwed, unless you carry a spare belt everywhere.

Has a belt ever snapped? Serious question. I've never heard of it happening, and the belt drive bike I've been riding for 4 years isn't even wearing, let alone close to snapping.

If you google gates belt drive snapped you‘ll find plenty of anecdata of belts lasting only a couple thousand kilometers (and others who ride them for tens of thousands of kilometers with no issues).

Here‘s a (German) Video from a guy with a severely damaged (but still rideable) belt after 4500 km:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n16gN7RDWEY

In the comments you‘ll find people whose belts snapped at 1050 km, at 1000 km and one at less than 2000 km.

I don‘t know how likely this is, it might be quite rare. But since it‘s non-repairable it‘d make me uneasy on longer bike rides.

Same for me. My Focus Planet is a 2015 model and I ride nearly every day; the blue coloring on the tooth side (presumably a wear indicator?) is barely worn through at any point.

Mine also has the Alfine 8 speed hub, which is kind of suck, but I make it work. I recently had it re-lubed (dunked) at my LBS, which seemed to help. I just wish there were some nice IGH in between the Alfine 8/11 and a Rohloff. I'd gladly pay for something better than the Shimano.

For commuters, I cannot fathom why people would deal with a chain when belts are a thing. Plus, good chains aren't cheap (I like Wippermann) and when you rack up miles you need to replace them enough that your wallet notices.

Tires: +1 for Schwalbe Marathons. Four years and no flats. NB: if you are worried about weight, upgrade to the Marathon Supremes with the aramid (foldable) bead. ~$75USD/each but totally worth it.

Oh yeah: a dynamo hub is a life-changer. My Focus came with a SP PD8 and lights, stock. Never having to strap on a light, or remember to charge it is a revelation.

Ride safe!

Yes I snapped mine within an hour after delivery. It may have been too tightly tensed (tho I did check with the app and it was fine), or it may have experienced stress during shipment. Whatever the case, did not instill confidence. Never rode the bike enough to have much experience with long term reliability, but found the 11-speed IGH didn’t have enough range to cover SF hills appropriately, and shifting wasn’t reliable even after tuning several times - why they chose to implement as a mechanical pulley instead of precise internal system is beyond me. Big purchase regret all around.

I've had a Spot ACME with belt for about 6 years. I've used in on my daily lunch ride 4+ days a week. I was worried about all that stuff, I love the bike and was worried about nothing.

Belt damage? They put these belts on motorcycles, it's possible to damage them but they are insanely durable, probably stronger than your typical chain. Somewhere I picked up a staple on mine, I'm going to get it replaced but I've done several hundred miles on it with no issues.

The IGHs are a different matter, they're pretty sensitive and if you get them off a little bit they work but your shifting will be hosed up. Bike shop fixed it all though. My advice? Don't mess with it, get it set up, make sure the little connector on the cable is tightly attached and you probably won't have issues, I had some slip on mine.

I've been running Conti touring tires with some mixed tread and pre-slimed tubes, I've not had flats but I've worn out 3 or 4 sets of tires. It's not a big deal to change it though. It's a commuter bike so it has bolts rather than quick release skewers, I'd use slime and maybe even kevlar liners if you get a lot of flats and just make tire changes a wear issue. It's a heavy bike, it's not a carbon roady by any stretch but it has been as close to zero maintenance as any bike I've had. It's actually required more maintenance on the disc brakes than the drive train, they were getting a little squishy but just rebleed them and they're good again. The only "issue" I've had was when I got a lot of dust on the belt, it was kind of squeaky for a while.

This carbon/ceramic drive shaft is kind of interesting. I always thought that the chain to pully and gear touch point was where the friction loss was, not interlink on the chain itself. For years and years, they've offered bigger pullies for reduced friction. This drive shaft will still have a similar touch point; also seeing as how both pieces rotate, it looks like there could be side to side friction as the cog on the shaft touches the gear on the wheel and they both rotate unless the cog and gear have some very special shaping that I'm not seeing. As the cog rotates, when it first can engage the gear, just the tip will be touching the gear but as it continues it will push more of the tooth on the cog in to the gear, am I wrong on this?

Heh, look elsewhere in this thread and I ALMOST bought an Acme but bought a Ghost instead, and had issues with the Continental belt drive (even before it snapped, it squeaked every time it got remotely dirty).

That is something which is really puzzling to me. Why doesn't anyone protect the belt with something like this:

[1] https://www.hebie.de/en/protection/chainguard/chainglider/35... ?

Are bicyles a fashion statement, or what?

"Seht her wie geil mein Riemen ist!"

I don't know about the Conti belt but the Gates has been rock solid since they introduced the center track guide. The first wave did have some problems unless the pullies had guides, they could slide off.

For what it is, I love it, it's not a racing bike though. I'm curious about the mtb uses with a Rohloff hub, it's a fair amount of weight.

I snapped a continental belt drive after 1000mi. It's been replaced with Gates. Hopefully it lasts longer.

Those ones suck, apparently. Had to be recalled even, and totally shut down Ikea's bike.

This is my experience with my belt drive bike too. It’s a neat novelty and it’s nice having one less chain to maintain. But I wouldn’t use it for rides over a few miles long and changing a flat is more involved.