Saturday, November 26, 2011

something cool for a new project I'm starting

Gates Carbon Drive System w/ Center Track

9 comments:

Doug said...

Curious how you came by the CenterTrack components? I had to order mine directly from Gates. No one seemed to be carrying them yet.

Unknown said...

Hey Doug, Thanks for chiming in. You are a big inspiration to my winter riding. I also bought it directly from Gates but LBS should have them about know. I know BTI carries them. It was a hard thing to come by when you got a hold of it but they have spooled up since the fourth of July. I will continue to watch how you fair with your setup. Time to open up the frame on the Pugs and go belt drive with an IGH?

Doug said...

I typically don't have an issue with the Pugsley running deraileurs. Up until now I only ride it on snow trails. Winters are cold enough here that most of the time I'm riding on packed trails with dry snow. My Cross Check with a belt drive sees the sloppy, salty, sandy roads all winter. I don't ride the Pugsley on the road until it gets below zero. At those temps the roads is usually dry.

My Pugsley is the designated extreme cold bike and is winterized for it. My IGH gets very stiff and hard to shift around -10. I've never taken it below that.

During my first Arrowhead 135 it was in the negative 20's. There was a guy with a Rohloff equipped Pugsley that year. It only took 10 miles for that Rohloff to freeze up and stop working. So I'm not very confident an IGH is the best equipment for the coldest days we have in Northern Minnesota. I need to keep a winterized traditional drivetrain around for those conditions.

Unknown said...

Ho ho ho!
Bianchi or Voodoo?

Pondero said...

Another belt conversion...hmmm...I wonder how they'd handle continuous dusty conditions...

Unknown said...

@Doug - Those are some very valid points. Keep the posts coming. Now that you have your timer figured out on the camera, we should get a bunch of winter action shot!

@Greg - Hey, glad to see you're alive still. Keep missing you on rides and events. Neither current bike is getting belted. I am working on a project this winter that will be the proud recipient. Stay in touch.

@Pondero - Chris, nice to hear from you. I would gather that dusty conditions would be total non issue. The guys that have innovated the belt drive for bikes are out of Colorado. They see plenty of the conditions you do. I'm hoping to have it survive through all the mud and dirt and wet I can throw at it here in Vermont.

Thanks for checking in everyone. I hope to keep this project moving forward so stay tuned.

Mark said...

Very cool. I'll be very curious to hear how it works for you. I love the idea of belt drive other than having to have a break in the stays to accommodate the belt. Looking forward to seeing more of the build. What frame are you going to use?

Unknown said...

Mark, I'm building up a prototype dual top tube frame that will allow for the belt. It will be a dedicated single speed bike with some nice components on it. I plan on having a few models of mtb frames available, this being one of them.

bmike said...

Nice. Can't wait to see it (from a distance) as you zip by me.

Double top tube? Hmm... Can't wait.