Comments on: Belt Drive Bicycles – Trek Soho

By: Crow

Crow — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:02:51 +0000

I am looking for a Bike that will work well to pull an adult trailer (cycle tote) for my 12 year old son with special needs. I have been looking at this belt driven SOHO, now that I read this, I wonder if a bike with more gears is more practical? normal usage would be a commuter bike for me, using it on weekends to pull my son.

Any thoughts on the type of bike best suited for this? You can email me directly at iowacrows@yahoo.com

By: harley

harley — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:52:36 +0000

The belt drive is from Gates. They do a good job of showing the advantages in mud and comparing the performance to a chain drive. http://www.carbondrivesystems.com/ It is equivalent in weight and efficiency and superior in longevity and maintenance. Belts work well with internal drives or fixed gear bikes, but I’ve seen mixed reviews on all of the internal drives except the Rohloff ($1000). The belt drive will not be able to be used on a bike with rear suspension unless the frame is built so that the distance from the crank to the rear hub doesn’t change with rear axle movement or there would have to be a tension wheel for the belt.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:02:43 +0000

I just rode one of these Trek Soho’s back to back with the Trek Soho Single speed chain drive. I was very impressed with the belt drive and could not really detect any loss of efficiency. The back hub definite adds a bit of weight but the split frame regains some strength because the hub, from what I can tell , becomes a rigid member of the frame. If is was $300 less I would have bought it but it just seems really pricey. The gearing ratios seemed very good but the bike was not loaded with all the gear I would normally carry so hard to tell. The jump from 5 to 6 seemed a little tall. The only odd thing I noted was there seem to be some torque backlash in the front fork and I think it was due to the design of the front brake. I noticed it when playing with the bike while standing still but did not notice it as bad when I was riding the bike.

By: Stan

Stan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:47:25 +0000

The article is in Dutch, but you’ll get the picture when you look at the picture:

http://www.dirty-pages.net/nieuws/nieuwsitem.php?id=40971

By: grayband

grayband — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:11:40 +0000

belts arent widely used on bicycles for 2 reasons…the first is that derailleur based shifting systems are proven, relatively inexpensive, and lightweight and chains have the ability to move across a cassette of sprockets with easy and with minimal noise. This is something that belts are unable to do at this time mostly due to their lack of ability to move laterally . the second reason is that belts don’t have the ability to come apart which allows them to be snaked through the gap separating the drive side chainstay, seatstay and seat tube. In order to install a belt there must be some way to creat a gap in the frame without compromising a frame’s design and structural integrity. and truavative is now making a 2 speed shifting system that will eventually be able to be mated to a belt system and rohloff makes the finest internal hub system available ….