Does Anyone Ride a Trek District+ 4 ebike with Belt Drive & Sealed Hub Gears?

T

Trekker

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Hi All

I just bought a brand new Trek District+ 4 ebike with Gates CDX Belt Drive & Sealed Hub Gears and an 800 watt battery.

It's my first ebike and I'm delighted by how smooth acceleration is and how easy riding is compared to my heavily modded Trek Roscoe 7 that I rode for the past 6 years, and previous DS.

Just wondering what other owners make of the belt drive and sealed hub gears - especially in terms of reducing maintainance costs and time lost to repairs?

James
 
Trekker said:
Hi All

I just bought a brand new Trek District+ 4 ebike with Gates CDX Belt Drive & Sealed Hub Gears and an 800 watt battery.

It's my first ebike and I'm delighted by how smooth acceleration is and how easy riding is compared to my heavily modded Trek Roscoe 7 that I rode for the past 6 years, and previous DS.

Just wondering what other owners make of the belt drive and sealed hub gears - especially in terms of reducing maintainance costs and time lost to repairs?

James
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Welcome to the forums! :cool:
 
Trekker said:
Don't all rush at once! :)
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Sometimes the peeps just watch you and wait for others to chime in it seems LOL

I've never had a Trek ebike, how ya like it?

I think we have at least one Trek ebike owner on here :unsure:
 
It's amazing!

Never had an ebike before - just ridden a few hired ones in big parks in the Lakes, and a couple of times in London.

I've had it for 2 days - bought on a Cycle2Work scheme.

My previous bike was a Trek Roscoe 7 with a Thudbuster seat post (already moved to my District ebike) and huge US cowhorn handlebars with riser bars - so very comfortable for my 60 year old body on my all year round commutes to work plus almost all local trips.

I have 3 different pairs of these type of bars in my garage and I'm planning to fit one of them to the Trek District soon because it means you don't have to bend forwards to grab the bars.
 
Is this forum not good for Trek users or for ebikes?

What is forum mainly about?

I'd love to mod the District to make it go faster - but obviously don't want to break it or make it no longer update-able by firmware etc.
 
Trekker said:
Is this forum not good for Trek users or for ebikes?

What is forum mainly about?

I'd love to mod the District to make it go faster - but obviously don't want to break it or make it no longer update-able by firmware etc.
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We're here for all ebike users and models.

Yur good here, we're just a small forum :)

Nah mate we have alot of people fro all over the world so you'll fit in..they seems to be quiet sometimes lol
 
My neighbor has an ebike with the sealed hub and belt drive, the only issue I see is that as of now the gear ratios are not as large as is possible with derailleur. Maybe this will change.....
 
Dmacarthur said:
My neighbor has an ebike with the sealed hub and belt drive, the only issue I see is that as of now the gear ratios are not as large as is possible with derailleur. Maybe this will change.....
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Thanks for letting me know that.
I'm not too concerned about that because I've just moved from an extremely heavy Trek non-E bike to an eBike and so going up steep hills, which I do every day, is amazingly easier than ever before.
 
Having more time with the bike working because of low maintenance belt and gears, no oil, much less fiddling, and much less expense on repairs and maintainance is a winner for me!
 
Like the old Sturmey-Archer the linkage can be problematic- my neighbor has had the pull-cable get caught and fail to shift the hub. Nothing is completely trouble-free! and I believe that chains have a bit less fri8ction loss than the toothed belt.
 
Yes, the performance/efficiency is slightly worse that using metal chain, deraileur and visible gear cogs - but that doesn't bother me at all. I'm much more interested in a bike that's got very low maintenance and just works.
 
That model doesn't seem to be available in the USA, though there is a discontinued older non-electric version:
https://www.waltscycle.com/product/trek-district-4-equipped-383815-1.htm
I would have seriously considered it if it were available here, as my local Trek shop sponsors our bike club, and I like to support them.

For some reason, Trek has avoided belt drive in the USA. They only did that District, but with their bikes being expensive to begin with, making them MORE expensive with a Gates belt drive and Shimano hub might not have been palatable to the American consumer.

There is actually a brand now that is trying to take that whole market: Priority. I bought their gravel bike this year. Might buy their eBike at some point in the future, as I LOVE belt drive now!

It is a bit less efficient, but not because of the belt; because of the gearing of an IGH or Pinion being less efficient than chain/derailleur.
 
They are worth going for if my experience so far is anything to go by.

There's a brilliant YT vid on CDX/hub gears by 'CyclingAbout' IIRC.
 
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