Which brands/models chainsets / chainrings have perfect centering?
- Thread starter silva
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Yes, hence the bottom bracket eccenter I mentioned here and there - that's for tensioning the chain.
The bike has qualitative components, stainless steel bolts, washers, strong materials, but there are some bad choices good mechanics wouldn't make, and dito bad execution. For ex nearly nothing was greased, they used red loctite on the rear disc mount cog bolts that were too short, so that the hubs aluminium thread got damaged and had to be tapped out, and after a month riding my chainring wobbled so that it scratched the frame. Also galvanic corrosion of aluminium due to stainless they didn't take into account.
Last week I moved forward my front light and the lights cable sat in the way of the allen head bolt that fixed the lights support to the bikes crown bolt location. I had to file out the aluminium hole to make room.
Today the bolts of the rear mudguard - same story, stainless so not rusted but no grease at all, and white powder on the thread, frame thread aluminium that got dissolved due to galvanic corrosion. Grease would have prevented that. A luck not severe enough to pose mounting problems.
Last edited:
Stompier
Senior Member
That's never going to work as well as track ends - as evidenced by these and other threads of yours. I really do think you're barking up the wrong tree. If you're serious about running fixed/SS, then at least get a frame which does it justice. Or fit a standard BB and use a chain tensioner.
Last edited:
newfhouse
Resolutely on topic
Your shoes need some polish.
keithmac
Guru
I have considered that from the beginning, and initially thought to chose it, but upon reading about it (not only the advertising but also user reviews) I came to the conclusion that it wasn't what I want my bike to be - it's too expensive in parts, way less common, too critical in mounting, much easier to damage than a steel roller chain, and DIY harder.
btw the bikes producer and dealer also came to that conclusion, on which reasons I don't know, also I heard on other subjects given reasons that turnt out to not have been the real ones.
But feel free to sum up your positive experiences with belt drives. It's not like that I'm locked up with roller chains, only that at that moment a belt drive appeared as a more con than pro.
What is for sure is that I never want gears back. Way too fast wear and other trouble (alike wet/frozen>sudden freewheeling in both directions and there you are in the middle of nowhere and rain / frost with nothing you can do).
Fixed gear rules my day. I understand things are different for other people, but not in my case / usage.
Likely the real reason for bikes producer/dealer was that if it was already that hard to get a straight chainline on their frame (the best they achieved with roller chain was 5 mm off, the rest I had to find a solution for myself), that for a belt drive this would be even more problematic - and it's more critical than a chain on this.
Edit: addition to that much easier to damage - know what: just parking your bike somewhere between other bikes, with no other choice, is already a recipe for disaster in the belt case, a steel roller chain can take a beating / a sharp object, a belt not. Just look in a city at all the bike wreckage around. I once returned to see my bike displaced with its chain mangled in the bike parking frame so that I had to use force to free it. The chain didn't end its life there, a belt certainly would. Hell, just look at how you have to fold a spare belt in order to not damage it.
This is a large version of my avatar pic.
View attachment 497715
Now it has more luggage capability, the wire basket on top of the rear rack has now twice the size and I mounted a small backpack (one I found thrown away along the road - a kid one) under the handlebars. I've put my bike tools and spares in because concentrated weight and thus counterbalancing the bike when alot loaded on the back.
I had to move forward my front and move backward my rear light due to the modifications.
My roller chain weights 550 gr - it's a 1/8" model with 3/16" plates so that a little rust or salt isn't fatal.
View attachment 497716
The pic is taken at the time that the chain hung tilted 45 degrees due to the 5 mm wrong chainline.
That plate below is a mudguard for the chain - mud and snow sticks and travels the entire rear wheel mudguard circumference to deposit itself near the bottom bracket (and chain). That made a hell of a difference.
I made mudguards for my shoes too:
View attachment 497717
So now you see how desperate I am.
All good points, I'm 5,000 miles in on mine with no need to adjust the belt (had a play with the Gates app though).
In all my years of working on Motorcycles I've only ever replaced one belt due to stone damage.
It seems you've been ripped off by the bike builders, that is a significant amount of money for a sub standard product.
This is my left hand side adjuster, both are decoupled from the frame and easily replaced if necessary.
You've lost some valuable adjustment at the rear with the eccentric Bottom Bracket, if only for fine tuning the axle position.
Hope you get it sorted, one point Gates setup is they have decades of experience making pulleys/ sprockets and belts so they are very good at manufacturing to close tolerances. My belt is nigh on identical tension anywhere along the crank rotation (within a couple of hz).
Does my bike look alike I wear a costume?
newfhouse
Resolutely on topic
Feel free to explain why an eccentric at the bottom bracket is never going to work as well as track ends.
It's abit more work that losening, pushing back wheel and fastening a couple nuts (losen two allen bolts, then an allen key to turn the eccenter in its hole, taking into account that the bolts tension the chain abit further then tighten the bolts again).
But acceptable and benefit no brake pads to realign unlike when wheel is moved backwards and also wheel straight. And no fretting of nuts into dropout alu.
This is all not related to centering / chain tension variation no?
Do you see polished shoes? I don't.
Maybe your nose blocks your view?
No offence intended.
Stompier
Senior Member
The most compelling explanation is going to be all of your posts in this thread. If an eccentric BB was that good at providing the levels of adjustment needed, there would be no issue and we wouldn't be having this conversation.
I've read reports of belts snapping 3 times in a row, I've read about problems with centering (not the centering I talk about in this topic but just to stay in the middle of the sprocket), among other problems. Only the advertisers never have problems.
If belt drives were that superior on short and long term then there would be as many as electrical bikes now.
Take into account my usage of the bike. It has to survive heavy loads, rough handling, accidental hits and vandalism. A roller chain cannot be cut by a kitchen knife. A belt can. Hell, one can take a cigarette lighter and burn your belt to inoperation.
In the belt case, fine tuning of axle position is not a luxury, it's an essential, with a lose hanging chain you can still ride home, with a lose belt you can walk home.
It's not about the fineness (= your "levels") but about excentricity / offcenter somewhere.
Weird that after all posts I still have to remind you.
Stompier
Senior Member
Well, we're just going round in circles (no pun intended). I'm not going to bother replying anymore, just to say with that frame, you will never achieve what you are looking for. Signing off.
keithmac
Guru
I genuinely feel quite sorry for you, if you think someone is going to set your drivetrain on fire.
Have you got tamper proof letterboxes and full water supplied fire suppression systems at home just in case someone sets your house on fire?.
