Two different methods of measuring belt drive belt tension
Posted May 31 2011 9:38pm
Prior to today I only had one way to measure the belt tension of my Gates Carbon Drive , with the Gates Krikit Belt Tension Gauge. When running a belt drive, it is crucial to have proper belt tension.
Recently I saw on Ecovelo blog that Gates came out with an app for the iPhone for their carbon drive belts that included a belt tension gauge. I was skeptical. But it works. And it's very cool. Technology blows me away sometimes.The way it works is like this. You pluck the belt with your finger like you would a guitar string. The microphone on your iPhone (iPod Touch in my case) picks up the vibrations and measures the frequency. The app gives you a range of frequency's that you should be falling within to have proper tension. I'm a little high here. I should be in the 50-55 range. But 60's probably okay.
with the Gates Krikit Belt Tension Gauge. When running a belt drive, it is crucial to have proper belt tension.
Recently I saw on Ecovelo blog that Gates came out with an app for the iPhone for their carbon drive belts that included a belt tension gauge. I was skeptical.
But it works. And it's very cool. Technology blows me away sometimes.The way it works is like this. You pluck the belt with your finger like you would a guitar string. The microphone on your iPhone (iPod Touch in my case) picks up the vibrations and measures the frequency. The app gives you a range of frequency's that you should be falling within to have proper tension. I'm a little high here. I should be in the 50-55 range. But 60's probably okay.
Simply amazing stuff.
Oh, and the app is free.