I truly wonder how someone can describe belt drive as silent and have 98% efficiency with idlers. Resistance is nuts without any idlers (very apparent when free coasting) and even higher with idlers in place…unless tiny belts are used. 20mm is almost essential for certain high powered builds, which makes it even worse.
Gear drive all the way…for e-mtb at least.
Bikes don’t have the chain centimeters from the ground with urethane directly beside it that can fling and lodge pebbles into the chain. The reason those and gokarts and the like work is the separation of distance, and angle at which a rock/pebble flying out from under the wheel has no chance of lodging in. Skateboard wheel + chain = perfect mixture of height and debris deflection to create a lodge
Why couldn’t a pebble lodge in a belt drive in the same way?
What about dirt and mountain bikes, while having ground clearance, most definitely have large amounts of dirt, mud and other debris flying into the chain and sprockets? Maybe its a question of chain size?
I guess for esk8 maybe with small chain pebbles can be a problem. But would it be the same with a MB and larger chains?
I like the silence. You know that feeling when you’re on a non-electric skateboard and you’re on bumpy asphalt, but then up ahead there is freshly paved asphalt; you get to that new road and its just super quiet and smooth and it just feels so nice? That’s how I feel between gear and belt drive - gear is noisy and vibrates more and belt is just so quiet and smooth, but also weak and slips.
Have you even tried gears? There is no vibrations at all and the sounds is the same level as belts just different pitch that’s why it sounds loud…
I already said this. The only solution is enclose the drive system. From there it’s a matter of preference, gear, chain or belt.
Yes, I tried gears, they’re loud and while it’s not a lot, I can feel the vibrations compared to belts. I don’t see how in the world you could possibly say straight cut gears are the same decibels as belts. Belts hardly make any noise at all - all I hear is the motors, and nobody looked at me as I approach. Gears on the other hand, people were always turning to see what the hell was making that noise. Now maybe the pitch of the belts is so high its outside the range of human hearing and only dogs and cats can hear it 
Belt drives are quiet, easy maintenance, and completely tunable. In as little as 5 minutes you can have completely different wheels, pulleys, and belt on the same drive system and have a completely different riding experience.
Chain drives are all of that with the benefit of added noise and lubricant mess.
Gear drives are not quite as quiet, not as easy but less frequent maintenance, and not as tunable but still tunable, sort of, not really most of the time. Maybe you can change the gears if they gave you some play in the mount to move the motor. Wheels can be easily swapped, wheel/motor gears not so much unless you have the previously mentioned adjustment options.
Direct drives are very quiet, very low maintenance, not really tunable but you can swap wheels all day, so get a fat motor can and a fat wheel and call it a day.
Hub drives are very quiet, but have shitty thin thane, zero options for tuning and fuck you for living unless its a Raptor 2 drive train, then maybe we have something.
yes i do benefit from the sound the chain emits. people hear me and actively make some space without any hate. sometimes i even say hi and say thanks and often get a smile…just being a good ambassador of esk8ing i guess. you never know…you may be pissing off an off duty cop. my belt drive was the exact opposite.
greasy chains can be avoided with dry lube such as “squirt” chain wax. my chain does not fling gunk nor it does it attract the horrific amount of dirt people think or say. sure, everybody has seen a messy bike chain and i think that is where this idea is coming from but the truth is that with the right lubrication dirt is not an issue. read what cyclists have to say about this topic - a vast majority of cyclists use chain. i know this because i actually only wiped the excess lube once off my chain after my first ride. i have’nt spent a single second cleaning anything on my drive train. im not saying its spotless but it aint greasy either its dusty of course but so are your belt drives. theres absolutely no reason to think that you’ll have to constantly clean your drive train because the reality is that you wont if you use the right lube.
To be clear, i have absolutely nothing against chains, and i can get my hands just as black by messing with my belts.
I shout at people when i approach. “EXCUSE ME, DO YOU HAE A MOMENT TO DISCUSS OUR SAVIOR LORD SKATAN?”
I’m not surprised you would say that, seeing the ‘‘tiny’’ belts that you usually utilise for your builds. Have you ever heard a well tuned 20mm belt? In all fairness, I think the silence of a particular drive depends on the type of build and the strength of the particular thing that causes a certain motion to occur.
lol…well i guess thats another way to make space…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYkKYaylxGQ/?taken-by=longhairedboy
I can hear four of them at once when i really feel the need.
And they are silent? When was your last hearing test. Even with the biggest amount of slack, they make noise beyond 20 km/h 
not silent, quiet.
Direct drives are silent.
the only noise that monster board makes is a slight groan as those 800 watt brushed in-runners wind up and then after that all you hear is the screaming and crunching of bones as you run over everyone else on the bike path. Even babies. You have to show these animals who owns the road.
Now we need to come up with a new unit of measurement. Level of Annoyance/offensive to non-esk8 folk.
I just have the occasional deer plowing.
But don’t forget there are problems with belts. I’ll be the first to admit it.
For example, they shrink when you get them wet
And they stretch a lot. Like all the time.
Also, they’re made from endangered wale fat, which is bad for the environment because you have to burn entire families of wales to get an ounce of rubber for the belts. And they use kitten whiskers for reinforcement so they have to farm kittens then yank out their whiskers which isn’t very popular politically. Another part of the process in refining the materials involves the acoustic vibrations of crying abandoned children in subway stations making them very expensive socially. We only use the finest materials in our belts and will not compromise.
This is still going?
Lol just pick one and try not to street face. 
i just developed an interest in inrunners recently after seeing a vid (stooge boards)…now i guess i need to check out your stuff and do some catching up.
Catching down…you need to get it right to be totally wrong.
Ouff I wonder if This is going to start another war
Against Japan, perhaps. The shrinking and stretching is due to a wrong mixture of ingredients harvested from (endangered) species. Instead of kitten whiskers, tiger fibers are preferred to combat the adverse effects. There is a reason why small cats don’t like water.
The whale blubber is not what it used to be. Stress during capture has a big influence on the decomposition process, resulting in poor rubber.