Carbon Drive Belt Tension Tool

Name: Carbon Drive Belt Tension Tool
Rating: 2.7 (21 reviews)
Author: Gates Corporation

By: Gates Corporation

Gates Carbon Drive

Features & Capabilities

Gates Carbon Drive is the high-tech belt drive for bicycles, motorcycles, & scooters. This app measures belt tension sonically. Just pluck your belt like a guitar string and use the microphone on your phone to read the vibration frequency. Compare your bicycle belt’s frequency to the included chart to see if you need to adjust the tension. For scooter/motorcycle tension recommendations, compare to your vehicle owner’s manual.

Other available features for bicycles:

Interested in key parameters of your bicycle belt drive like speed ratio or center distance? Want to know what belt lengths or sprocket sizes will fit your bicycle? What about comparing one bike to another to tweak your ratio perfectly? With our calculator, you can stay on top of the perfect setup for your drive.

Find key parameters of your drive such as speed ratio and center distance.
Change belt length or sprocket sizes to better suit your riding needs.

User Growth & Download Statistics

App

By:

Gates Corporation

Rating:

2.70

(21)

Version:

2.7.11 Last updated: 2025-09-18

Version code:

878160579

Creation date:

2011-05-25

Compatible devices:

Size:

84.48MB

URLs:

Full description:

Source:

Apple Apps Store

Data ingested on:

2026-06-07

Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

# 346,722 ▲ 691

For Developers

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Contact the developer

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Developed by:

Gates Corporation

Apple Apps Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/carbon-drive-belt-tension-tool/id438346486

User Reviews

The app is a free, potentially useful belt-tension reference with a calculator and chart, especially when a Gates gauge isn’t available. However, reviews show unreliable readings highly affected by noise, frequent mic issues, and inconsistent results. It lacks a recording feature and beginner-friendly guidance, and it even crashes on older devices. The UI is hard to read and some users feel the tool is unstable and not reliable for most use cases.

Pros

Free and accessible without needing a Gates Krikit gauge.
Calculator and tension chart provide a helpful reference.
Can be a useful no-cost belt-tension reference for occasional use.
Useful for tensioning when used correctly in a quiet environment.

Cons

Readings are unreliable and inconsistent due to background noise and harmonics.
Microphone/measurement tool is unreliable and can produce random readings or no readings.
No recording or measurement log feature; unclear when a measurement is captured; no pause.
Poor UI readability (dark text on a dark background) and lack of beginner guidance.
Crashes on launch on older iPhone models/OS versions.

Recent reviews

Perfectly silent room, completely usable iPhone 15 Pro, readings are all over the place. Strum it 10 times, I’ll get 4 readings from 20-28 hz, a few readings around 40-50 hz, and the rest above 75 hz. There is no way I could trust taking any of these as an indicator or whether I need to go looser or tighter on my belt. Luckily I have the Gates Krikit gauge. I can click that thing 50 times and get 36 lbs every single time. I was more or less just hoping this app would be a useful reference out and about if I’m without the Krikit. I give the app a couple stars for the calculator and suggested tension chart. But the microphone tool is no bueno and almost more of a liability in my mind. I’d be worried that someone is going to take their readings and go too loose and end up shredding their belt or worse they go too tight and cause the bearings on an IGH to explode.

by Wr*****, 2025-02-05

First of all, I don’t do bike maintenance in an anechoic chamber. But even when I did get it as close to silent as possible in the real world (inside, heater off, no people or pets in the house, no moving my body except to pluck to belt, no breathing while the mic is on), I never could get four similar measurements with the crank in the same position (which seems like a prerequisite for trying it with the crank in different positions). A typical set of four would read something like 52 Hz, 98 Hz, 32 Hz, 87 Hz. Tried it on two different devices, so it’s not a mic issue. I give up.

by Al*****, 2025-02-02

I wanted to check my bike’s belt tension. This app is a noble attempt at making that easy, but it falls a bit short. First, you *really* need to be somewhere very quiet otherwise your readings will be drowned out. Second, the app seems to have trouble with harmonics. I’d often get readings of 25hz then 50hz then 25hz again. To be honest a spectrograph might be more helpful than a single number.