“Should I get the belt drive?” comes up in the shop most days. Here’s what we tell people, including the bits where a chain is still the better choice.
What is a belt drive?
Most bikes drive the back wheel with a chain. A belt drive does the same job with a toothed belt reinforced with carbon fibre. It runs dry, so there’s no oil and no black marks on your hands, your trousers or the kids. It’s close to silent, it doesn’t rust if the bike lives outside, and it lasts a lot longer than a chain.
That matters more on a cargo bike than on most bikes. A strong motor and a heavy load work a chain hard. Chains need cleaning and oiling, and they wear out and get replaced along with the sprockets.
A belt means hub gears, and that’s half the point
A belt can’t move across sprockets the way a chain does, so belt drive bikes keep their gears sealed inside the rear hub. For carrying kids, that brings three real benefits:
- You can change gear while you’re stopped. With derailleur gears you have to be pedalling to shift. Pull up at the lights in a high gear and you set off in a high gear, with two kids on the back. With hub gears you just change down while you wait.
- Nothing hanging off the back to get knocked. There’s no exposed derailleur to bend in a bike shed.
- The gears are sealed from the weather. Rain, grit and road salt stay out.
Hub gears live inside the back wheel, driven by the belt. This is the Enviolo hub on a Tern GSD P00, with its twist shifter.
Some hubs, like the Enviolo, don’t even have separate gears. You twist the grip and it goes smoothly from easy to hard, with a little picture of a rider on a hill to show you where you are. It’s about as simple as bike gears get.
Where a chain still wins
- Really steep hills. Derailleur gears are more efficient than a hub gear, and you notice it on the steepest climbs.
- Price. A belt usually costs more. On a Veloe Multi, for example, it’s a £300 option.
- Familiarity. A chain and derailleur are simple, and any bike shop can look after them.
- Sometimes the spec. On the Tern GSD, the chain-driven S10 is the one with ABS and the better kit. The belt-driven P00 costs the same and trades those for low maintenance.
Belt drive bikes we sell
A belt isn’t only a Tern thing. Plenty of the cargo bikes in the shop offer one:
- Tern GSD P00: the two-kid longtail, with a belt and Enviolo hub.
- Tern HSD Gen 3: shorter, for one passenger, and every Gen 3 model has a belt. See the HSD P5i, HSD P00 and HSD S9i.
- Veloe Multi and Multi Lungo: made near Milan, with a belt as an option. The Multi rides a lot like a normal bike.
- Bike43: purpose-built Belgian longtails.
- Muli Motor: a compact cargo bike, handmade in Germany.
- Estarli eCargo: a longtail at £2,995.
If you’re after a bike just for yourself, Tenways and Estarli have lots of belt drive bikes too.
So which should you get?
If you want the least faff and the bike lives outside or gets used in all weathers, go for the belt. If you live up a really steep hill, or the chain version has something you want, a chain is fine. It just wants a bit more care, and we can do that for you in the workshop.
Better still, ride both. We keep the Tern GSD S10 with a chain and the GSD P00 with a belt in the shop, and there’s a hill right outside. Ten minutes back to back tells you more than this page can.
If you’re choosing a GSD, our guide to which Tern GSD to buy goes through the S10, P00 and R14 in detail.
Come and try one
We’re at 143 Crouch Hill, Crouch End, London N8 9QH. Call us on 020 8347 5534 or pop in.