My Ultimate Commuter update

[Ayl]

My previous bicycle utilized a Gates Carbon Belt drive, and I had a couple of leftover pieces that were new and sitting around. A 60 tooth count front chainring, and a 125t belt. I noticed the Rohloff has an amazing gear range, but even without the battery on the UC I wasn't needing to tap into the lower gears. I figure if I bump up the front chainring on my Ultimate Commuter I'd be putting more of the lower gears to use. Before attempting this I used a spreadsheet available from Gates to calculate the needed belt size after throwing in the current values. I was happy to learn the 125t belt that's been sitting on my shelf for the last year was finally going to be used.

The hardest part was in opening the frame to remove then add the belt drive, but the rest was a cake walk. My old ebike had the same tensioner as the Ultimate Commuter, and it only took me a short time get the new belt and chainring added. I'm now using more of the lower gears, and accelerating a little faster.

 

[pushkar]

Wow. This is awesome. Thanks for sharing. First official drive train customization

Let me know what your experience is - if this is somethign that betters the quality of the ride / ability to leverage gears better, I would be happy to offer this on new bikes.

Incredible!

 

[Ayl]

Let me know what your experience is - if this is somethign that betters the quality of the ride / ability to leverage gears better, I would be happy to offer this on new bikes.
Incredible!

Will do. My update was done late yesterday, so after installing the chainring and belt I only had time to cruise around for a couple of miles. As time and the miles add up I'll let you know my thoughts on the modification.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

My previous bicycle utilized a Gates Carbon Belt drive, and I had a couple of leftover pieces that were new and sitting around. A 60 tooth count front chainring, and a 125t belt. I noticed the Rohloff has an amazing gear range, but even without the battery on the UC I wasn't needing to tap into the lower gears. I figure if I bump up the front chainring on my Ultimate Commuter I'd be putting more of the lower gears to use. Before attempting this I used a spreadsheet available from Gates to calculate the needed belt size after throwing in the current values. I was happy to learn the 125t belt that's been sitting on my shelf for the last year was finally going to be used.

The hardest part was in opening the frame to remove then add the belt drive, but the rest was a cake walk. My old ebike had the same tensioner as the Ultimate Commuter, and it only took me a short time get the new belt and chainring added. I'm now using more of the lower gears, and accelerating a little faster.

Very cool!
@pushkar : I think this is a worthy upgrade. From my own experience of riding the bike during 24 record day, I was predominantly using 12 and 13th gear .
If you use this 60T chainring, the rider would be able to make use of 11th gear which is the strongest gear on Rohloff (that can take 2000W of power).
I think this would also help in better stop-go acceleration.

 

[pushkar]

Very cool!
@pushkar : I think this is a worthy upgrade. From my own experience of riding the bike during 24 record day, I was predominantly using 12 and 13th gear .
If you use this 60T chainring, the rider would be able to make use of 11th gear which is the strongest gear on Rohloff (that can take 2000W of power).
I think this would also help in better stop-go acceleration.

Great idea. @Ayl has a custom frame so there is a little more wiggle room on the sprocket. the 60T is a bit too close on the standard geometries. I will keep this feedback as a product improvement feature.