Thursday, November 15, 2012

A little housekeeping goes a long way...

This week, a customer contacted me, quite frustrated with his belt drive single speed, complaining that it was not as smooth as it should be, had a tight spot in the pedal stroke, and was making an intermittent noise.

After dumping a hundred bucks having it worked on at two bike shops with no improvement (changed the belt line, adjusted tension) and an attempt over the phone to walk him through a few adjustments, we decided it was best to bring it back to Groovy headquarters for a quick shakedown to determine the origin of his problems.

It took about 20 seconds to see what the issue was...
Impacted in the belt's center track was a bunch of wood pulp that was causing the belt to climb up on top of the chainwheel and cog rather than mesh cleanly with it.

A couple minutes work with some tweezers and a quick wash down with some soap and water and all was well with the world again.

As amazing as the Gates/Carbon Drive product is, we must remember folks, there is no product on the market that will perform 100% of the time without a little maintenance.  Take some time to learn your bike, the adjustments and maintenance required, and it will pay off ten fold by expanding your skill set for trouble shooting.

Best of all, it will reduce stress (yours and mine) and allow you to spend your time on the trail enjoying your ride.

cheers,

rody

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