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Belt Drive Touring Bike

A Complete List of Gates Carbon Belt Drive Touring Bike Manufacturers

There’s no doubt that Gates Carbon Belt Drive is an excellent drivetrain solution for long-distance touring bikes. I’ve got a belt drive touring bike AND a belt drive tandem sitting in my garage which both have 30,000km+ on their original belts. To put that into perspective, a standard derailleur drivetrain will rarely shift well after 10,000km. In addition, belt drive touring bikes are silent and require almost no maintenance other than odd clean with a toothbrush.

There are two clinchers with a belt drive touring bike, however:
– You need to use a belt-specific frame
– Your drivetrain must use either an internally geared hub or gearbox (adding significant cost)

As I get lots of requests from people about the bike and frame options available for Gates Carbon Drive, I’ve pieced together a resource with the manufacturers you need to know about. You’ll find the vast majority of brands (87%) here are European, but many of those will ship internationally or have local dealers. If you know of any other brands that do a belt touring bike or frameset, please drop a comment below.

Belt Drive Touring Bike Manufacturer List

Belt Drive Touring Bike
Avaghon Series 28 Touring Bike (from €3099)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Bottcher Trekk Lite Touring Bike (from €1949)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Co-Motion Americano Touring Bike (from US $5265 / frameset US $1965)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Cresta Sirius Touring Bike (from €3900)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Cube Travel SL Touring Bike (from €1199)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Externum Habilita Touring Bike (from €4500)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Falkenjagd Hoplit ST Touring Bike (from €5690)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Gudereit SX-R 4.0 Evo Touring Bike (from €2600)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
HiLite Thao AL Touring Bike (from CHF 3500)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Id Worx oPinion Touring Bike (from €4735)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Kalkhoff Endeavour 8 Touring Bike (from €999)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Kocmo Randonneur XD Touring Bike (from €3500 / frameset from €1800
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Koga WorldTraveller-S Touring Bike (from €3250)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
MaxCycles RX Lite Touring Bike (from €3299)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Maxx Crossmaxx 28 Touring Bike (from €2364 / frameset €749)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
MTB Cycletech Amar Touring Bike (from €2690 / frameset €1179)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Norwid Skagerrak Pinion Touring Bike (frameset from €1269)
Patria Argos Touring Bike (from €3400)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Pilot Vamos Rohloff Touring Bike (from €5399 / frameset from €2499)

 

Belt Drive Touring Bike
Poison Phosphor Touring Bike (from €1299)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Rennstahl 931 Pinion Touring Bike (from €4790)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Rose Activa Pro 3 Touring Bike (from €2400)
2017 Salsa Fargo Frameset
Salsa Fargo OffRoad Touring Frameset (Steel/Carbon US $899 – Titanium/Carbon US $2499)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Santos TravelMaster 2.9 Touring Bike (from €3839 / frameset €1699)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Shand Stoater Touring Bike (£3795 / frameset £1495)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Simpel Optimist Touring Bike (from CHF 1895)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Snel Belt Ride 28 Touring Bike (from €3000)
belt drive touring bike
Soma Wolverine Belt Drive Touring Frameset (US $680)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Stevens Sovereign Touring Bike (from €3300)
Thorn Nomad MK3 Touring Bike (~£3000)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Tour De Suisse Trekking Bike (from CHF 2449)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Tout Terrain Silkroad Rohloff Touring Bike (from €3590 / frameset €999)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Trenga GLC 14.0 Gates Touring Bike (from €1499)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Van Nicholas Pioneer Touring Bike (from €4199 / frameset €1899)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Velotraum Cross 7005 EX Touring Bike (from €3400 / frameset €1100)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Velo De Ville A800 Touring Bike (€3999)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Vittorio Globetrotter Touring Bike (from €3700)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
Vivente The Gibb Touring Bike (AU $4499)
Belt Drive Touring Bike
VSF Fahrradmanufaktur TX-1200 Touring Bike (€3699)

17 comments
  1. Might be nice to mention the associated costs vs. standard drivetrain. 30,000km is great but if it costs you x4 times as much to replace sprockets and belt vs. conventional chain and chainring/sproket then the value point is a bit moot. That’s from the viewpoint that you’ll get increased/good longevity from a chain running a straight/fixed chainline on a similar IGH/Pinion setup.

  2. Amazing that the Rose Activa Pro 3 Touring has a middle kickstand. How often wants Rose see that bike fall down, when fully loaded? I recently met a touring cyclist with that bike; he was not amused! The #1 mistake by a manufacturer of touring bikes.

  3. A good custom builder can make pretty much any frame Gates-compatible. Cycle Monkey in Northern California, for example, sends their frames out for VERY clean mods at incredibly reasonable prices.

  4. And just announced today, the new Salsa Fargo Ti. Frameset only however.

  5. From the Netherlands please don’t forget the affordable Batavus Dinsdag Exclusive, and the pricier but very desirable Koga F3 6.0

  6. Thanks for the suggestions, Alwin. I’ve had a look at those models and decided they’re a little more city/commuting than most of the bikes on this list. It’s a fine line, but I had a good look through the frame geometry and parts to arrive at that decision! 🙂

  7. Fair enough on the Batavus, but I think the F3 6.0 is too sexy and too similar to the Kalkhoff and Cube bikes. I know I’m biased though, can’t wait to get one in September. Anyway thanks for a really helpful compilation!

  8. There’s a few other manufacturer’s not mentioned like Schindelhauer and 8bar. We import them to the United States and we ship for free to the US and Canada. thesuperiorbikeshop.com

  9. Ive never ridden a belt drive bike before but am considering purchasing an alpinechallenge alfine 11 with gates belt drive.i believe it has 8 gears and im wandering if this will be sufficient enough to cope with a hilly small island i live in .

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