Belt Drive? Worth doing?

[biking_fox]

I'm looking at getting a new commuting all-round, all-weather bike. One of the options is belt drive. In principle this means no dirty chain, no cleaning?, no regular replacements, no adjustments.
In practice? - has anyone got one? How do they ride? How much maintenance to they really need? How long do they last before you do need to replace something?

It will be on a Rohloff hub which I'm already riding, and a belt ready specific frame if I go down that route.

 

[Dogtrousers]

No practical experience but if I were in your position - already have a suitable frame and hub - I'd. Be itching to give it a go out of curiosity.

Edit: On re-reading maybe you don't already have the frame.

 

[ianrauk]

I have a fellow commuter friend who rides a belt drive. He loves it. The belts lasts years. I think he's only had to replace it once in over 10 years.

 

[biggs682]

I had one of the Mercedes belt drive bikes years ago

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/my-commuter-for-this-week.108481/

 

[biking_fox]

I had one of the Mercedes belt drive bikes years ago

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/my-commuter-for-this-week.108481/

So how did you get on with it? 10+ years on still riding it?

 

[biggs682]

So how did you get on with it? 10+ years on still riding it?

It was ok just a bit on the heavy side and sold it soon afterwards

 

[MontyVeda]

I have a fellow commuter friend who rides a belt drive. He loves it. The belts lasts years. I think he's only had to replace it once in over 10 years.

that sounds a bit like my chain

 

[dicko]

My next bike will have belt drive (Gazelle) if it’s good enough for the Dutch then it’s got to be a good choice.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I've been on a belt drive for five years now and will never go back to chain drive. That said, my competitive days are over, so I'm a commuter, tourer and weekend run cyclist now.

I've done more than 10k on the same belt and it still looks, sounds and works good.

Within the parameters for which it is designed, I cannot think of a single drawback. It requires zero maintenance, I've not had a single chain tattoo in five years and, all the talking about finding the optimum tension is all nonsense. Tighter, looser, it just doesn't care.

We now have three belt drives in the fleet.

 

[MadMalx]

I forget who, but a belt drive (and Rohloff hub) did a round-the-world trip a while back. Prob changed the belt en route tho