Gate Drive Belt

[Brucey]

£17.99 only buys the front section of a chainglider; you will need a rear section too if you want the chain to stay clean?

Hesling make full chaincases that are silent in use (unless the chain is slack in which case it rattles over bumps) and they are nothing like so much bother as you might expect, once fitted. Nor are they heavy, fragile or awkward, either. However they don't fit every bike!

cheers

[Des49]

..Its a good looking bike, and I'm envious of your commute. You are right, a front mud flap can only do so much. Given the nature of your commute and the fact that you're using a hub gear, have you ever considered a herbie chain case? http://www.hebie.de

Interesting product cycle tramp... looks cheap enough to just try ...
hebe.JPG
Best case the chain would stay nice and clean. Worst case (plus my luck?) would be the whole Chainglider became clogged with oozing mud !!! Obviously with Covid I am not commuting any more but I was thinking of repurposing the bike for touring so it may be worth a try....

I'm a happy Hebie (Chainglider) user. Slightly fiddly to fit and take on and off, but not too bad and seems sturdy. Noise is a bit unsettling when you test it on the stand, but I don't notice it when riding. Keeps the chain clean and will not fill with mud/water unless submerged.

I too am so far happy with my Chainglider. Early days, as only fitted it beginning of February, it is surprisingly silent, only noticeable over a bit of rough road or potholes. Not quite sure how I would tackle a puncture on the road with it as could be a pain to take off and remove the wheel. Same for cleaning the bike when you need to remove the wheels.

But I have also managed to get rid of the chain tensioner I previously had been running on this vertical dropout frame, a half link left the chain still a touch slack for my liking but the Chainglider helps to contain everything. Just left the factory lube on for now, but have a container full of some old heat and dunk chain stuff from many years ago, will try that when I feel the need.

So far the transmission feels beautifully smooth and quiet and I felt quite smug about this on a journey this evening. I have nice long mudflaps but there is still a coating of fine muck over the chaincase, nice to know this has not found its way onto the chain itself.

[Billy007]

Deleted.

[slowster]

I'm a happy Hebie (Chainglider) user. Slightly fiddly to fit and take on and off, but not too bad and seems sturdy. Noise is a bit unsettling when you test it on the stand, but I don't notice it when riding.

My experience has been that the rear section can be quite noisy (I've never noticed noise from the front section), but that this is variable and can be greatly reduced/eliminated by adjusting the position of the rear section. I found that if I have the rear section slightly canted forwards, it seems to make very little or no contact with the chain, i.e. push the top of the rear section a bit further forward on the front section and/or pull the bottom of the rear section a bit further back on the front section.

I found an optimum position for my Chainglider by a process of trial and error, pulling and pushing the rear section back and forward one or two increments at a time. I did it with the bike in a stand, but I guess it would be possible to do with the bike on the ground and turning the cranks backward to assess the noise.

Not quite sure how I would tackle a puncture on the road with it as could be a pain to take off and remove the wheel.

On my bike it's only necessary to remove the two parts of the rear section to take the wheel out. To make it easy and quick each time to refit the rear section exactly as it was before, I have marked the top and bottom of the front section to indicate how far the the rear section needs to be pushed on.

[SA_SA_SA]

Isn't a hebie chainglider a microplastic dust creation device...?

[Brucey]

My experience has been that the rear section can be quite noisy (I've never noticed noise from the front section), but that this is variable and can be greatly reduced/eliminated by adjusting the position of the rear section. I found that if I have the rear section slightly canted forwards, it seems to make very little or no contact with the chain, i.e. push the top of the rear section a bit further forward on the front section and/or pull the bottom of the rear section a bit further back on the front section....

that makes perfect sense once you allow for the fact that the approach and departure angles of the chain vs the sprocket are slightly different from one another....?

cheers

[slowster]

My experience has been that the rear section can be quite noisy (I've never noticed noise from the front section), but that this is variable and can be greatly reduced/eliminated by adjusting the position of the rear section. I found that if I have the rear section slightly canted forwards, it seems to make very little or no contact with the chain, i.e. push the top of the rear section a bit further forward on the front section and/or pull the bottom of the rear section a bit further back on the front section....

that makes perfect sense once you allow for the fact that the approach and departure angles of the chain vs the sprocket are slightly different from one another....?

I think it's due to the fact that the rear section fits over the front. The front section rests on the top and bottom runs of the chain, and because the rear section has a larger internal cross section it is possible to use the range of variability in its attachment to the front section to hold it off the chain.

In my case I found an optimum position not by design, but as a happy by-product of trying to ensure that the rear section did not touch/rest on the hub shell. The hub is a Rohloff, and there were problems with the first version of the Chainglider rear section designed to be used with a Rohloff. The moulding was not quite right, with the result that the rear section could touch/rest on the hub shell and would gradually wear a groove in it (photograph below taken from details here in german on Rohloff's website dated 2007). Although I have a newer version of the rear section, I was paranoid about any possibility of this happening to me given how expensive the hub is. I therefore fitted the rear section so that it was raised as high above the hub shell as possible, with the result also that it did not touch the chain and was not noticeably noisy (at least not to me) .

I did not realise that I had unintentionally found the quietest position for the rear section until I had a puncture and had to remove and replace the rear wheel. The Chainglider was so noisy when I started off that I realised the importance of re-fitting it each time in exactly the same position, which I had to find again and then marked on the front section.

[cycle tramp]

Isn't a hebie chainglider a microplastic dust creation device...?

Damn it! You could be right. I mean there were probably mirco particles of rubber and plastic coming off the belt drive.. and now I think about it there's the plastic from the deraileur pulley wheelie things as well.......

[Des49]

Not quite sure how I would tackle a puncture on the road with it as could be a pain to take off and remove the wheel.

On my bike it's only necessary to remove the two parts of the rear section to take the wheel out. To make it easy and quick each time to refit the rear section exactly as it was before, I have marked the top and bottom of the front section to indicate how far the the rear section needs to be pushed on.

Thanks, I have marked the rear section position with a couple of pencil lines, which don't show up that well so must think about a bit of paint or tape. The bike needs a clean and I will aim to do this in the next couple of days. Have located my very very old tin of Weldtite Linklyfe into which I will dunk the chain.
Hopefully the wheel will come out easily with just the rear section taken off the chainglider. At least it is easier in some ways without that chain tensioner.

[SA_SA_SA]

Isn't a hebie chainglider a microplastic dust creation device...?

Damn it! You could be right. I mean there were probably mirco particles of rubber and plastic coming off the belt drive.. and now I think about it there's the plastic from the deraileur pulley wheelie things as well.......

?

Microplastics are bad for water life etc , so surely designs that create more of them should be avoided...pulley wheels could be metal, perhaps the chainglider could too?

[cycle tramp]

Microplastics are bad for water life etc , so surely designs that create more of them should be avoided...pulley wheels could be metal, perhaps the chainglider could too?

I guess if you were to make a chain guard out of metal, you could take the design from http://clelandcycles.wordpress.com/evolution/
which is a piece of sheet metal bolted between the chain stay and rear wheel, neatly shielding the chain from any mud or water which may be flung from the tyre onto the chain.