Better late than never ... and more about the belt

You never realise how much you depend on your computer until it breaks. My old workhorse had been groaning and complaining for the last few months, but finally gave in last weekend - simply refusing to boot up and leaving me quite distressed. I managed to get back online in a fashion by swapping in a spare hard disc and installing Ubuntu, but it was touch and go which made me think it was more likely a hardware than a software problem.

Fast forward a week and I have a shiny new "ultra-portable" laptop which works a peach, making me a happy camper. Anyhow, you probably aren't reading this for laptop reviews, so I'll just get on with it.

The belt itself has been a revelation. I've always thought the best inventions are those that you don't really notice. Take electricity. You flick the switch and you have light. While you are in the lit room, you don't think how great the electricity is. But when it isn't working you really notice it is there.

To me, the belt drive is kinda like that. When you ride it for the very first time, it feels very smooth, but before long you stop noticing it. You just get about your ride, the bike feels great - like it's just had a good lube - but otherwise you hardly notice it is there.

Then you ride with a friend and suddenly you hear the whirr (and occasional clatter) of the chain. A noise that was once taken for granted seems suddenly so invasive. The same goes for the feel; hop onto a chain driven bike and suddenly you notice the mechanical feel of the chain meshing with chainrings and sprockets. Not that it grates; to the contrary, I enjoy the mechanical feel of the bike in the same way I like old cars. Just that the belt erases any transmission vibration and is simply smooth, which is lovely.

Ok, granted my belt is still very new and I am keen to see just how it wears, but so far I am very impressed. At the moment I have been running it as a single speed, but I plan to try it out with the Alfine in the coming weeks - something I am looking forward to a lot.

In terms of the proto frame, fitting the belt did present a few snags. Nothing insurmountable, but certainly issues that I'll aim to resolve in the next iteration. This will almost certainly mean a switch to sliding dropouts instead of the EBB for the belt driven application, though we will most likely keep the option open for fixed dropouts. I'd be interested to hear your views!

So, with a good few miles under the wheels of the first prototype, I'm busy revising the drawings for the next prototype. None of the changes (besides the new sliding dropouts) are major, so I expect the next prototype frame will be with us soon. Not much time if we are going to keep to our schedule, so I'd better get back to it!

ps. The green tape was a little fun, and I'm loving the bullhorns.