Gates belt drive

Your Gates Carbon Drive belt: how to handle it, keep it clean and correctly tensioned, and when it needs replacing.

Cross-section of a Gates Carbon Drive belt showing the ribbed back, polymer body, carbon tensile cords and nylon tooth facing.

Your belt drive at a glanceHow the Gates Carbon Drive belt on your Booda works, why it needs no oil, how it differs from a chain, and the temperature limits of each belt line.

Gates illustration of prohibited belt handling, including kinking, twisting, tying and rolling or prying the belt onto a sprocket.

Handling the belt without damaging itThe carbon cords in a Gates belt take huge pulling force but break when bent, twisted or levered. The handling rules for fitting, storing and carrying a belt.

Gates care illustration showing that sunlight and rinsing with a hose are fine, the approved temperatures, and that the belt must never be oiled.

Belt care and inspectionHow to clean the belt drive on your Booda, what never to put on it, and what to look for on the belt, sprockets and crank before you ride.

An Allen key on one of the three bolts of the eccentric bottom bracket cap on a Booda frame.

Belt tension: checking and adjustingThe target belt tension for gear hub and single-speed Booda models, how to check it, and how to adjust it with the eccentric bottom bracket.

Gates illustration comparing a belt running straight on aligned sprockets with a belt walking off misaligned sprockets.

Belt alignmentHow to check that the belt runs straight on both sprockets, what misalignment causes, and what you can correct yourself on a Booda frame.Why a Rohloff Booda has no snubberGates recommends a snubber for a belt on a Rohloff hub; Booda leaves it out. Why, and what keeps the belt from skipping instead: the right tension.Belt noise: causes and diagnosisSqueaking, zinging or ticking from the belt drive almost always has one of five causes. How to find which one, in what order, and when to stop riding.

A belt in excellent condition next to a worn belt with a shark tooth, a missing tooth, cracks, worn fabric and exposed carbon cords marked.

Belt and sprocket wearWhen a Gates belt or sprocket must be replaced, why a belt with hidden damage cannot stay in use, and why a worn sprocket destroys a new belt.

Gates illustration warning against rolling a belt onto the sprocket by turning the crank or prying it on with a tool.

Fitting a new beltHow a Gates belt comes off and goes on a Booda frame through the splittable seat stay, slackened with the eccentric bottom bracket and never levered on.

An Allen key on one of the three bolts of the eccentric bottom bracket cap on a Booda frame.

Eccentric bottom bracket bearing changeAdvanced service guide for replacing the bearings in the eccentric bottom bracket of a Booda frame, written for the Shimano Alfine models.