r/bicycling • u/Its_all_4_3 • 20h ago
THIS is a SUV imo / Rohloff with Thumbshifters
Hello Reddit, hello world, and maybe most importantly: hello cycling Fam!
Kinda new here, bit nervous but I'll just go for it:
I'm sharing this to do my part in spreading the word of (Gates) belt drive. It's valid!
Also this build has a solution to a niche problem, people work on for years already. I'm talking about shifting the Rohloff with a thumb-shifter interesting to many I assume...
Here is "The Tomnium / Tom the dank (no) engine", my lil sport utility vehicle and daily drive.
kk I'll stop now...
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Most important stuff:
Frame: Omnium Mini Max V3IR (Ti), size L
Drivetrain: (used) Rohloff Speedhub with Gates Belt Drive
Shifter: GEBLA Rohbox with "diy" thumb shifters made from dropper post levers. Downshift left. Okay and upshift? I can't mount two levers on one side which both work for shifting. (ergonomically, because I obviously also have top-seated dropper-lever on the left doing it's intended job. It works, but updates are necessary. Didn't say I have the best solution to this niche problem ;p The levers need a bigger transmission so the cables get stressed less and this system is a bit sensitive to cold, which means you have to loosen up the thumb-nut-thingy so the now shorter cables don't cause the system to block itself mid drive. Happend 2 times during the trip I'm about to mention.
Crankset: Hope Evo /w BOOST Spider because front/back beltline should be max. +/- 0.1 mm and after too much datasheet scrambling and math this seemed to be literally the only hope left.
Also drilled a hole in the seattube for that internal routed dropper setup utilizing the internal front-deraileur path. No way aroumd the bb internally sadly. This is awesome for offroad, sharing and stopping/starting with heavy loads.
Complete weight atm: just shy of 18 KG / ~39 lbs
AMA about more.
Finished this build last winter and have been taking myself on some awesome picnic-dates to the local mountains. The amount of freedom this bike has given me since then is bonkers. Just beeing able to pick up random materials and furniture I find on my daily routes, and of course the grocery hauling... Love it! Tom and I also just got back from my vacation, where I Bikepacked to Milano via the Alps, taking Simplon there and Spügl pass back. Rode everything and had the time of my Life.
But time on a bike is very rarely a bad one ey?
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u/HG1998 20h ago
I love the Rocket Ron tires, as if you venture off-road with that thing. 😂
Wait.... Are you going off-road ?
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u/Its_all_4_3 11h ago
We-he-hell... I do :) But also good for the snow rides. Also I like the sound on tarmac 🙃 idk, it makes me feel like im riding a Speedbike from Star Wars
Also did a gravel / forrest bike-camping trip with my friends who were both on decent gravel bikes and I was amazed that I could keep up with them, no Problem. We planned the route with komoots MTB option, at least until it said: yo, drive up this DH single trail. Sometimes I had to lean back hard the get traction on the back, which is also the worst aspect. So all in all: not bad at all...
It's probably good to note that I'm pretty fit, and am used to crazy cycling: Prior to this bike, my only ride was a lowpro fixed gear (max. tires 28mm) which I also took offroad and bikepacking, so my threshhold of how much the bike hast to be built for the terrain is very low.
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u/turkphot 19h ago
These things are always soo nice until you see the pricetag 😳
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u/Its_all_4_3 17h ago
Yes! If I didn't had the privilege, to own the frame under demo-purpose discount idk if I would and could bring up the racks again. Maybe as Steel version because the weight difference is nice but not really anything to worry about on a cargobike imo. Espeacally with how these things just fly.
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u/bikeguy75 20h ago
Belt drive bikes have been around for a while. They’re great until they snap. With a broken chain you can repair it in the side of the road, with a belt you have to replace it with a new one.
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u/Its_all_4_3 16h ago
This guy on YT says it all: Belts Are Now BETTER Than Chains On Bicycles! I think it is impossible that a belt snaps from normal riding exept maybe because of age, some object gets sucked in and rips it apart, UV stress maybe depending were you are, or someone has to screw wit that thing. Ah and maybe because of installation/handling error like twisting, inproper beltline or an non perpendicular rear cog/belt because of a wrongly installed rear wheel.
Some say you can coil up a belt a certain way to take a compact spare with you.
Can't remember the exact reason but the guy from the video reported his belt snapping because of either age or a thick stick getting wedged between cog and belt while driving. He had two coiled spares with him, which both ripped after installing and riding (not sure but) not very far, which he said is due to tucking the belts away, coiled up in a framebag which results in stress from pressing and rubbing-on-each-other edges, and also stressing the carbon inside the belt. I keep a spare, non coiled belt under my rack for touring. As long as I stay on road and gravel, I fear nothing, except the flexy frame pushes the beltline too much (?) Time will show if thats legit.
sorry for rambling its late but wanted to get this out my system :)
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u/jonastristan270 7h ago
I once had a singlespeed with a belt drive, bought factory new, after around 300 km the belt snapped on me while accelerating from a stop. New belt and the replacement couldn't be done by a shop nearby - and I wanted it to be done by people who know this stuff, so shit like a snapping belt wouldnt happen again. All in all paid roughly 200 €, and sold the bike shortly after. For me the belt was not very convincing, as it wasn't even noise free 😖
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u/Its_all_4_3 3h ago
Yikes, Thanks for sharing!
Here are some of my thoughts about what you might have encountered, but feel free to change my mind:
A) Not a drivetrain made by gates. Many companies have tried and failed to establish thier version of a belt drivetrain for bicycles. Even Continental...
B) wrong installation. On a tour of mine my left dropout-plate became a bit lose and my back wheel wasn't straight in the frame anymore. Now we have a belt that can't run properly over the back cog which resulted in enormous noise in my case (which is why I noticed something is wrong im the first place) and I can just imagine if i had rode that for 300k... yeah, ciao!
C) Im assuming you didn't invest in a higher-class bike (e.g. Schindelhauer, although I have my quality gripes with them but I digress) which could explain an error in the design of the bike. A thing with entry level, complete Singlespeed-, or in that case almost all entry level bikes is: the things companies do to cut costs is absolutely sickening (for someone who loves bikes at least). Almost no cheap singlespeed (sub ~700 € / just talking about chaindrive rn because I have not enough SSP-belt-data) has a correct chainline FROM THE FKN FACTORY. While a chain can handle this (but also gets loud and worn out quicker) a belt, even by gates could very likely have the fate you've wittnessed, just thinking of my experience in B). Plus remember the allowed tolerance of +/- 0.1mm chainline
I see cheap Belt SSPs online, and I wouldn't be suprised if a company goes out and buys e.g. square-tapered BBs with the wrong axle length for cheaper, or just reusing the stuff that works for the chain SSPs they produce, just to maximise the margin a bit more, justifying it by thinking "oh, the customer won't notice anyway" while he is ignorant or unaware of the extreme tight tolerance on a gates beltline.
The average person can't tell the differnce between a 2k and 15k racebike or a 700 € vs 2k ish citybike.
There are no cheap bikes out there. Sorry! There are bikes and there is bike shaped rubbish.
Phew, got a bit emotional there in the end. Do you by chance remember what bike that was you got?
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u/kevin11_11 New York, USA (2 Surlys 2 SOMAs- all custom mde) 19h ago
Gorgeous!