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Fullpower
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 01:51 pm: | 
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rick: yes i can very easily adjust the chain slack. takes a 9/16 end wrench. dont even need to loosen the axle nut. easy. |
Fullpower
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 01:59 pm: |
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Perusing the myriad Hayabusa, Ducati, and other web groups/sites, i have noted an absolute lack of the topic "How can i convert my bike to BELT DRIVE?" Pull up to a group of ANY kind of motorcycle riders, and you will not hear anyone whining about the vibration, excessive maintenance, or short life span of ther cheap factory stock chain drive parts. Please note, I am not throwing rocks at anyone, if you are happy with your drivetrain, and it works for you, that is way cool. for my purposes, and to avoid unplanned camping at roadside, i have elected to chain up. here is my adjustment mechanism: |
Blake
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 02:17 pm: |
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I've heard a bunch of complaining by chain drive bike owners. |
Danny
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 02:25 pm: |
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Now that I have the gearing where I like it... I would like to convert my V-Strom to belt drive. Mainly becasue I'm effin' lazy and don't take care of my chain. 23000 miles and should start thinking about my third. 48k on the original belt on the S2
Danny
95 S2
02 V-Strom- Anyone know where I can convert to belt drive? |
Blake
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 02:32 pm: |
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Dean,
You may want to keep an eye on that friction connection. The more slack it tries to take out, the higher the load it must withstand. Might be better to use the standard bracker with unslotted bolt hole and swap different sized wheels to achieve adequate chain tension. Aluminum is not real great in a friction joint scenario. Adding some roughness or even indexed interlocking grooving to the faying surface of the friction joint would help a lot in preventing slippage of that joint.
Good luck. |
Hootowl
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 02:38 pm: |
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Didn't I see a spring loaded tensioner somewhere? I believe they were using it with a belt, but it sure seems like it would be perfect for a chain drive setup. |
Fullpower
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 03:55 pm: |
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very good point blake. i will keep an eye on that. also considering a dab of green loctite, the "sleeve and bearing retainer" compound to increase friction at the mating surface of the crankcase to tensioner arm joint. (huh huh... he said "joint" huh huh). so far so good, will report back when i get some miles on the lash-up. |
Fullpower
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 04:02 pm: |
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also please note, the chain in the pictures has 10,000 hard miles on a stroker XL, using it for R&D, pending receipt of new tsubaki sigma. that is why my adjustment slot ends about where i have the current slack set, that is to say, the current experimental chain is worn out, and will be soon replaced with a new slightly shorter (unstretched) chain with the same number (108) of pitches. |
R1DynaSquid
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 05:03 pm: |
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I've heard a bunch of complaining by chain drive bike owners.
I've never had a problem with any of my chain drive bikes. Lubing them is no big deal & if I want to swap sprockets out its quick, cheap & easy. |
M1combat
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 05:29 pm: |
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But the damn things throw oil everywhere... Granted, when I'm due for my third belt (I'm still on my first at 7K) I may change my tune depending on how much roadside camping I'm forced into (we have snakes, tarantulas and scorpions here)  . |
R1DynaSquid
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 06:05 pm: |
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Throw oil everywhere???? Dude the O-ring chains aint like the chains from 25 years ago.
Lube em once in a while & you will get a little splatter on your swingarm for the first few miles then its done. |
M1combat
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 07:07 pm: |
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They don't throw oil all over the rear wheel? Inside the front pulley cover? Not even a mist that will collect a TON of dust and then actually require SOAP to clean? That bit of splatter on the swing arm is enough to turn me off. That means it'll be splattered/misted everywhere else and everywhere else will start collecting mass quantities of dust and grime. No thanks. |
Starter
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 08:27 pm: |
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Other bike owners that have chain equiped rides don't whinge about the chain cause they aren't aware that there is any alternative, but what they do talk about all day is the different chemicals and solvents that are needed to clean their wheels. There is always extensive talk about which is the non fling chain lube as well. Whoever said that o-ring chain don't need regular lubing is having themselves on. I had a GSXR that would eat a top of the line RK x-ring (supposedly better than o-ring) chain in less than 5,000 miles as well as the sprockets and that was using chain wax every couple of hundred miles. I then turned to using heavy grade gearbox oil at the same intervals and the chain life was easily doubled, however the bike degreasing was tripled. Modern chains still need good lubrication and make a hell of a mess. |
Crusty
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 09:09 pm: |
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I bet a high quality non O-ring chain, running in a sealed oil bath would outlast even a frequently washed and babied belt. It's a shame that the Mothership dictates that anachronistic, antiquated,delicate and overly expensive time bomb must be used. RS's came with chain drive. Belts were a major step backwards. |
Whodom
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 09:12 pm: |
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Danny- I was reading up on V-Stroms a LOT a few months ago, particularly at the Yahoo V-Strom2 group. Someone published a link to a European belt drive conversion kit that was already out for the Strom and IIRC, lots of people were interested. I tried to find the message without luck tonight but if you post there someone is sure to have the info. |
Blake
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 09:24 pm: |
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Crusty,
Sounds like you are describing the primary chain. Yep, in a sealed oil bath, a chain will last a LONG time. But that is not the case with the final drive is it. The belt final drive is superior in all ways to a chain except for ease of repair. And that may change shortly. Certainly belt drives are not a step backwards. |
Starter
| | Posted on Thursday, August 05, 2004 - 10:00 pm: |
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I been doing quite a bit of research into the belts and the available options cause over here isn Aust. a genuine spare is $450. Very scarey price if you ask me. I also work with quarries so have a few people chasing things for me. Anyway, the details of the Goodyear belts on the 2004+ XB12 and 2004+ XB9 are as follows.
They are a 14mm pitch (we all knew that)1 they have 128 teeth (Grrrrr.... read further to see why this is a problem) They are 28 mm or 1.125 inches wides (industry standards are 20mm, 40mm, 65mm etc), they are sold to industry as a Goodyear BlackHawk PD. They are not imported into Aust. (no surprises there). They don't come standard to industry in 128 teeth lengths (only 127) and finanally my favourite part, Buell has them made under supply contract.
Now I've had suppliers look into other alternatives, in terms of being cheaper and maybe stronger and they have come up with the Dayco Panther and the Gates Polychain (I think this was the older belt but this version is a 14mm so apparently is stronger). Both of these belts are bike specific and made in the 128 tooth, 1.125 inche width format and can be purchased for around $160-$170 in the US. One possibilty for someone who may be into snowmobiles is finding a cross reference chart so that the belts that are used on snowmobiles can be assessed for suitability as they are not listed with as much detail as the bike and industrial belts are and don't follow standard part # practise. I know from industry experience that Dayco belts are far superior in strength and durability to anything else on offer. |
Danny
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 11:28 am: |
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Hugh- I was only about 50% serious, but thank you. It's probably on the V-Strom (http://11109rapid)Forum if I just did some looking around.
Danny
95 S2
02 V-Strom (Bye-bye chain?) |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 11:34 am: |
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I should convert to chain drive, and just route that tranny vent to point at the rear sprocket. Factory Scott Oiler... 
(yes, for those reading between the lines, my crank seal let go AGAIN!) |
Whodom
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 11:44 am: |
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Crusty- there was an HD big twin model for a few years (1980's?) that had an enclosed oil-lubed chain final drive. Looked like a pretty good idea to me, but I guess belts were cheaper. |
Hootowl
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 01:46 pm: |
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Reep,
How long are the vent lines on you breather? Too long of a hose can act as a block when the PRF goes up. |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 05:10 pm: |
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Oh. Uh Oh. Pretty long, now that you mention it.
Time to go sit on the milk crate |
R1DynaSquid
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 05:35 pm: |
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I had a GSXR that would eat a top of the line RK x-ring (supposedly better than o-ring) chain in less than 5,000 miles as well as the sprockets and that was using chain wax every couple of hundred miles
I have over 4000 miles on my R1 & I just swapped out the front sprocket..went down 1 tooth.. & there is no wear that is visible at all. Sprocket looked like new as does the chain. We have already had this discussion in the past...look in the archives...and it was determined that even with •••• poor maintenance a chain would last 20K+ miles. With decent maintenance 35K+ is a cakewalk.
Note that I have never said chains were better or that belts are superior. For longetivity it would be hard for a chain to surpass the current 60K+ miles the belt on my Dyna has. But for gearing changes & perhaps piece of mind in regards to belt breakdowns..then chains are superior.
I have yet to get problem with oil all over the rim & tire deal. You are just supposed to lube the chain, not the entire back half of the bike. I lube it every 500 or so miles & havent had any mess yet. |
M1combat
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 06:16 pm: |
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"I bet a high quality non O-ring chain, running in a sealed oil bath"...
That would add a LOT of unsprung weight to the bike. No thanks.
"Looked like a pretty good idea to me, but I guess belts were cheaper."
No, belts are better IMO. They are lighter and last longer. They are cheaper in the long run (they don't eat sprockets or cleaning chemicals) and when they DO break they don't take your leg, engine, wheel, rear section and transmission with them. I've lost two bikes to chains and I'll never go to one again unless I have to. I think that MAYBE a better guard system or an entirely different paradigm behind pulley design would greatly lessen the chances of belt failure. We need to give the rocks a place to go other than through the belt when they run through the pulley.
dyna - I just checked out a few pics of R1's (don't know what year they are) and it looks like you probably have a chain guard that runs the entire length of the chain on the top. That's most likely why yours isn't so dirty. The chain guard is as ugly as the chain though. |
R1DynaSquid
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 07:03 pm: |
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Yep full length chain guard. They do make a one piece carbon fiber unit that combines it with the hugger fender & thats a pretty sweet setup. Dont know if I feel like blowing $200 on one tho.
Remember the fender/belt guard/license plate mount carbon fiber deal that came on the S1? They sure have come a long way since those days..thank God.
(Message edited by dynarider on August 06, 2004) |
R1DynaSquid
| | Posted on Friday, August 06, 2004 - 07:19 pm: |
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Love the bike, hate that fender. The tea strainer on the XB's is 1000 times better. |
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