Chains are also significantly more efficient than belts, robbing your drivetrain of less of your precious power. Motorcycle riders have known this for decades, so welcome to that particular club. But when you have to pedal your machine yourself that matters even more. In the world of bicycles, if you're going to have multiple gears you also need an internal gearbox and these also inevitably have yet more frictional losses built into them than a traditional derailleur.

Chains are repairable in the field with master links, or cobbled together bits of other chains. Belts aren't. Every belt drive bike also has a specific length and pitch of belt that you need to be able to find premade, whereas you can produce a chain of any length easily using random bullshit found at any department store and the aid of the little screw press that's probably built into your bicycle multi-tool. Or failing that, a couple more master links.