Urban Attack Vehicle: Belt-Drive Proletariat

When I first saw a belt-drive bike it made a lot of sense to me: No chain, no oiling, no greasy mess, smooth and quiet operation. Belt-drive bikes rely on internaly-geared hubs which, by themselves, offer several advantages: Ease of shifting, completely contained from the elements, low maintenance, and simplicity of operation. These are all qualities every bike should have and it would seem the average person thinks so, too. The most common reaction from people who see my belt drive bike when I ride on BART is "Why don't all bikes have belts?" Why indeed.

I acquired my full-size belt-drive bike before my belt-drive Bike Friday Future Tikit and am therefore doing these reviews out of order, but there you go ...

I briefly considered modifying my existing Cannondale frame for a belt drive, but that would have involved cutting the frame's rear triangle since the belt is continuous and can't be opened the way a chain can. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't try that route and just sold the Cannondale instead. A frame designed for belt-drive from the ground up is the way to go because precise alignment between the rear and front cogs is crucial. When things get out of alignment in a chain-drive, the chain just flexes. If things aren't aligned with a belt-drive, the belt may slip and that's B.A.D. Belt-drive bike frames also need to provide a mechanism to appropriately tension the belt, usually done with an eccentric bottom bracket arrangement or special dropouts on the rear of the frame.

Stop Cycles Proletariat with Gates Carbon Drive

Web research led me to Joe Bike, a brief and enlightening email exchange with store owner Joe Doebele, and shortly thereafter I took the plunge. The Stop Cycles Proletariat with an eight-speed Shimano Alfine hub and the Gates Carbon Drive belt system arrived via UPS within a couple of days and soon I had it assembled with my pedals of choice - Crank Brothers Egg Beaters.

Since receiving the Prole last October, I've added an Axiom Streamliner Disc rear rack and SKS P45 fenders. The rear rack lets me use the Ortleib Downtown pannier as my flight bag, holding my headset, iPad, and other essentials. While I wish the bag had more compartments, it is waterproof, quickly attaches/detaches from the rack, and has a nice shoulder strap. As for the fenders, some folks have complained than SKS P45 can't be installed on bikes with disc brakes. Some bending is required, but I beg to differ.

Front fender stays need some trimming and bending ...

Some creative bending of fender stays required to clear the caliper ...

These additions, combined with the beefy tires and excellent frame, make the Prole an ideal urban attack vehicle for the streets of the East Bay. Potholes, broken pavement, detritus in the bike lane? Fugetaboutit!

Having logged around 600 miles, I finally went for a ride with my wife and noticed something odd. Pedaling more slowly and lightly that I usually did, the Alfine hub was making weird sounds. If I pedaled harder (the way I normal would while commuting), the sounds went away. More web research led me to the very thorough hubstripping.com site and revealed such sounds are commonly reported by Alfine 8 owners. There are two approaches: Assume the sounds are normal and ignore them or give the Alfine 8 hub internals an oil bath. Shimano even has an oil made expressly for this purpose that runs between $80 and $120 per liter!

Some enterprising bike mechanics noted that Shimano's secret sauce bears a remarkable similarity to plain ol' synthetic automatic transmission fluid. Many Alfine 8 owners report that soaking the Alfine 8 internals in synthetic ATF every 800 to 1000 miles makes the funny sounds and occasional shifting hiccups disappear, so I decided to give it a try. After removing the rear wheel, this was the disassembly sequence. Don't try this procedure yourself unless you have the requisite skills and tools. If you do something dumb or break something, you were warned and don't blame me.

Removing my brake rotor required a spline tool, yours may be different.

Loosening the retaining nut to remove the rotor.

Removing cone bearing - requires 16mm cone and 18mm open end wrench

After turning wheel over to the drive side, removing C-clip (expansion pliers make this A LOT easier).

Removing the Gates belt cog.

Prying off the dust cover.

Loosening the case on the drive side with a strap wrench - LEFT-HAND (clockwise to loosen) THREAD!

Carefully opening the drive side

In a CLEAN working environment, carefully remove the innards.

Sloshing/soaking for a few minutes in synthetic ATF (modified soda bottle works nicely).

I did not do any disassembly of the internals of the Alfine 8 - I just sloshed and soaked for a few minutes, allowed the excess fluid to drain, then greased the bearing races and reassembled. My results with the ATF bath have been quite good: Shifting was noticeably smoother and the odd noises disappeared. Having ridden 50 miles since this service the shifting is still buttery smooth and the hub is still quiet. Time will tell, but it appears my Alfine 8 is good to go for another at least 800 to 1000 miles.