Belt Drive

[cberkeley]

Just curious, my only bike experience is with shaft-drive Gs bikes. So, folks with belt drives like Harleys how much belt maintenance is necessary? How many miles before belt changes? Do they fail unexpectedly?

[tomcat24551]

My neighbor has a 2001 Victory, 1500 cc, I think. All these fellows do is check the tension occasionally and plan to R&R the belt every 30,000 miles. They do break. He lost one while in NY state last summer and I believe he told me the bill including "towing" to a shop was about $400. The belt that broke had about 30,000 miles on it, I think.

Update: Nope, I was wrong. The belt that broke was brand new with 1200 milies on it. He thinks a rock about the size of a green pea got between the pulley and the belt and snapped it. New belt was over $100. He carries a spare now, but says some Victory riders have gotten 50,000 miles per belt.

Tomcat

[RacingJake]

I got an 01 Sportster too, I have 26K on it and about 100 runs at the dragstrip with no problems and no maintenance either. If it does break you take a few heavyduty plastic wire tie's and punch a few hole where the break is and zip it back up and limp home with the bike.

I've heard of other HD's break them at less than 5K and some have broke 3 in one year. Some have gone over 50K too. Problems are it take's just one small rock to punch a hole in them and then screw up the aluminum pulley teeth. Meaning 170 bucks for a belt, 100 for a front pulley and if it's a rear pully then over 200 for it.

There's also not much of a gear ratio offer and the belt does add drag to the rear wheel. If I jack up my rear wheel and spin it it will come to a stop in one turn due to the added drag caused by the belt.

Now you can't bend the belt to much and expect it to live long, thats why the front oem pulley has 27 or 29 teeth and the rear is 61 for a 2.25 and 2.10 ratio.

With a chain you can tell when it's time to replace it but with a belt you can't tell when it's going to go??

As for me this summer I'm going with a 530 chain conversion for alittle more gearing.

[cberkeley]

Thanks for the education folks, that's the kind of info I needed.

[rphillips]

A Sportster on a drag strip??????? Speaking of NO FEAR !!!!!!!!

[RacingJake]

I've given a CB400 a run for it money and some old red Kawi too in a heads up race

But it doesn't brother me to have the slowest HD there cause when you bracket race it's not about speed. I've put alot of the "faster" bike's on the trailer early and took their money. The only thing I didn't take home was their girl friend's, figure the wife wouldn't like that 8O

When you have a slow bike there's not much that can happen to make you slower, like a miss-shift, out of the groove, low NOS, etc. The only thing I can think of is maybe a flat tire.

Now when I take my TW200 and it runs 12.6 in the 1/8 at 48mph and I'm lined up against a 5.50 bar/box bike. That's when the fun really begins when they are on the tree for 7 seconds.

[RacingJake]

Thanks for the education folks, that's the kind of info I needed.

Last year I walked in to our HD dealer and said when are they coming back out with a chain drive. The guy gave me alook like you are crazy and said that's like going backwards???.

I always wonder when they first came out with a belt drive that some gearhead was bitching about how slow the bike's was when compared to chain drive.

I always felt belts are for scooters and chain's are for motorcycle and I guess I ride a scooter.

[drhach]

belt drive

I always felt belts are for scooters and chain's are for motorcycle and I guess I ride a scooter.[/QUOTE]

You're right. when comparing chain/belt/shaft. Chain is absolutley the most efficient in terms of power loss. On the other hand, belts never need to be oiled. My brother's Victory seemed to hold its own with a belt and it was fast enough to get me pulled over for speeding. If you're willing to do the work to convert your bike to belt drive you're probably willing to oil the cahin once in a while.

[Road_Clam]

I've driven just about every motorcycle chassis configuration out there, and belt driven bikes are the way to go period. It's the best of both worlds. You get the smoothness and relatively no maintinence of shaft (without the typicall shaft drive handeling oddities). You also get the "power to the pavement" of a chain drive, without the added heightened expense of chains/sprockets wearing out. I am kinda surprised belt driven bikes have not been used in AMA road racing events yet. Must be some disadvantage with a belt that makes it not a good choice for racing.

[jonesti]

I am kinda surprised belt driven bikes have not been used in AMA road racing events yet. Must be some disadvantage with a belt that makes it not a good choice for racing.

Parasitic losses and strength are probably the reasons. However, as far as parasitic losses I'm not sure if there's more with a belt which has more surface area or the chain cause of the weight? Who's good with math......
Main reason I can see would be because of the abuse a chain can withstand.

[Tarbash 27]

alot more rotating mass with those pulleys, plus gearing options, width, and strength. I hate belt drives.