Author |
Message |
No_rice
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 12:44 pm: |
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well it was a great ride into work this morning.......... for about 5 minutes. chunked the 7th belt on the green 9. about half way to work this morning i shifted into the next gear and it started bucking while i was going down the road. eased it to the next intersection, looked down and saw exactly what i expected, i have a nice smooth spot in the belt again. missing about 4-5 inches of teeth on it. i suppose its about time i start rounding up parts to put that chain conversion swingarm to good use. i have said since i put this last belt on that i was switching to chain when it gives out. i have one of the Hal's chain conversion swingarms and a few of the parts(cant remember what at the moment, i think the axle, a sprocket spacer and maybe an axle spacer or 2) so Budc is working on seeing what they can come up with for parts since they havent been selling that set up for awhile. i just have to find out what front and rear sprocket to use. chain length, things like that. looks like i will have a project on my hands. |
Skinstains
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 01:05 pm: |
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welcome aboard. |
Dogdaze
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 01:09 pm: |
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Buster Douglas? "I ain't got no teethus, and I damn sure ain't got no driver license!" BD |
Froggy
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 01:13 pm: |
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Were you still running the 03 belt setup? |
Hammer71
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 02:10 pm: |
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Tim, If it's 04 or later belt parts I'm in need for the winter. Let me know. |
No_rice
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 03:38 pm: |
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sorry hammer, its just the latest version of the 03 belt. i doubt i am even going to waist the time trying out the newer belt set ups on this thing! |
Mr2shim
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 04:32 pm: |
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How much is hal's swingarm btw? |
No_rice
| Posted on Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 06:10 pm: |
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the price on their website used to be $2495.00 i looked, and i have the swingarm, wheel spacers, and brake rotor spacer. i need everything else. it might cost me a bit to round up the rest of the stuff. no one has any parts from one of these laying around do they? lol |
Buellblastrider
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 10:54 am: |
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sounds really odd. normally sheering teeth is due to loose belt tension. since this isn't reall possble with the XB. had another student here at MMI buy a used XB and went through 2 belts the realized the bike had been down had completely snapped swingarm pivot shaft which is INSANE (Message edited by buellblastrider on August 24, 2008) |
Iamarchangel
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 02:26 pm: |
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So, No Rice, what is the average time, mileage, whatever, that the belt has lasted? The previous owner of my '03 'bolt replaced it last spring. I'm wondering how much time I have left. Although I'm probably not as aggressive a rider as you seem to be. |
Mr2shim
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 04:37 pm: |
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Iamarchangel, Having no rice tell you how long his belt lasted won't do anything other than easy your worry. There have been people who have had 03 belts break at 3k miles under normal use and there have been people who have had them last 10k under normal use. There is really no telling. Check out this issue of fuell. Last page or so I believe talks about the belts from 03-present https://www.buell.com/en_us/_media/pdfs/owners/Fuell-2008/Fuell-Spring-2008.pdf 03 belt is full of fail. Best thing to do is upgrade to 04+ or go chain conversion. I personally think it's BS that us fellow 03 owners have to spend damn near 600 bucks just to fix a problem that we didn't create. (Message edited by mr2shim on August 24, 2008) |
Bwesky
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 08:36 pm: |
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Iamarcrhangel, i have an 03 lightning, have had no belt problems in 3k miles... i am not sure if the belt has ever been replaced before that, seeing as i got the bike wit 12k on it... so it just depends i guess on the bike. i know the guy before me rode this bike hard, and i sure as hell know i ride it harder... |
Rpm4x4
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 10:42 pm: |
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Updating to a newer belt sounds a lot simpler. The belt is something I really like about the bike. |
Buellblastrider
| Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 11:29 pm: |
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i don't know the history of your bike but to me theres agreater problem. first thing that comes to mind is alignment. going through belts like this can't be a series of faulty belts. especially not when other bikes on such a greater scale are doing fine. i'm afraid your fixing the symptom and not the problem. i wonder if there is a cause to your problem (thats not a belt issue) just my opinion |
Sub65chris
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 07:36 am: |
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he biggest factor in the shortened life of the belts is all the dyno time adn extra power put through the belt. it also couldent hurt norice has a lead wrist! |
Tpoppa
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 11:19 am: |
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i don't know the history of your bike but to me theres agreater problem. first thing that comes to mind is alignment. going through belts like this can't be a series of faulty belts. especially not when other bikes on such a greater scale are doing fine. i'm afraid your fixing the symptom and not the problem. i wonder if there is a cause to your problem (thats not a belt issue) just my opinion I agree. There must be another problem that is eating belts. I have over 30k on my XB9s and have had NO belt issues. I replaced the original belt at 12k and that was in pretty good shape. I have 18k on the current belt (upgraded 03 belt), and it looks really good. Couple questions... Are you using the belt guards? What do the pulleys look like? any sharp or damaged teeth? Is the belt aligned to the pulleys correctly? Does it wander back and forth? Also, I would check your swingarm, pivot bolt, belt tensioner, and rear axle for damage. |
Point_doc
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 11:56 am: |
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Following Tpoppa's comments; I have read on this site about the alignment of the belt and it was mentioned that following the manual during the torque sequence of the rear axle is important to ensure the alignment of the belt. I personally have found that following the manual with the anti-seize helps also. It will allow the wheel and axle to move to their proper location respective of the swingarm. I also will put anti-seize on the wheel bearing's inner race to prevent the surface of the race the opportunity to impact a successful installation of the rear wheel. (Message edited by point_doc on August 25, 2008) |
No_rice
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 01:35 pm: |
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this belt was designed to put down a bit over 70 horse and it wasnt good enough at that so it has been revised how many times now.... now it tries to plant 94 horse and 74 torque at the wheel. most of the time which consists of carrying the wheel through the first 3 gears. and about half of those belts it was trying to plant about 140/150 horse at the ground. funny thing is i just got done saying on here a few days ago that i was surprised at how long this one had lasted. i had one that didnt last 300 miles and broke while i was ideling, but it was rock hard when we pulled it out of the box so i got it warrentied |
Rhun
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 03:25 pm: |
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The 03 belt is very susceptible to bending and twisting. If you do either to it if life expectancy plummets. If you are getting the belt from a dealer in original packaging and installed by someone who is careful and knows not to bend or twist it, you have problems elsewhere. Also its tensile strength was weak so doing hard down shifts is a no no, as is gravel. Great improvements were made in 2004 and then again when the Ulysses came out. If after you make sure the mechanical stuff is good and switch to the later setup, get an 09 belt. |
Ben782
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 09:13 pm: |
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sounds really odd. normally sheering teeth is due to loose belt tension. since this isn't reall possble with the XB. had another student here at MMI buy a used XB and went through 2 belts the realized the bike had been down had completely snapped swingarm pivot shaft which is INSANE Who are you refering to about the snapped pivot shaft? This is what happend to my roomate (we both have buells and go to MMI-orlando}) Do we know each other? |
No_rice
| Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 - 11:41 pm: |
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ok, let me clarify. i do know how to correctly install the belts. the belt tracks just fine. i buy the belts from me/myself/& i, and i have myself install them because i am my local dealer. i stated that i was doing a chain conversion, not that i was trying to upgrade belts! the belt is great dont get me wrong, but it wont be as strong as i need it. even the new belts will not take kindly to an instantanious 50 horse jump in power. basically people are saying the equivelent of, if i stuck a V8 in front of a stock S-10 drivetrain that there must be something wrong with my drive train if it breaks. because there is no way the drive train could be inadequate for that job. i beg to differ, i have done it, and you know what happens. everything behind it breaks. i put 425 horse at the ground, through something designed to handle maybe 150 horse at the motor on a good day, it just does not work. well i could change the way i drive and baby it but that is not a reasonable answer as far as im concerned. i ride stuff hard. if it breaks then it wasnt strong enough to do what i want. so that means it gets upgraded until it is. |
Kenney83
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 12:11 am: |
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"i ride stuff hard. if it breaks then it wasnt strong enough to do what i want. so that means it gets upgraded until it is" No_Rice I couldn't agree more with you. I have seen some of the photos you have posted of you r old belts. I can't believe you waited this long to change over to chain. nest year I am going with an 04 upgrade. If some how I break that then I will think about a chain. when you do the chain conversion do a post so we all can follow and figure out how to do it. Steve |
Rpm4x4
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 12:24 am: |
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I didnt realize you had that much in power mods. Instantanious 50 horse? Im assuming NOS? If so I agree you need a chain. The cost of cool aint cheap. |
Buellblastrider
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 01:09 am: |
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Ben don't know you personally, i heard this from roger (instructor) can't remember his last name. teaches Tech 1. |
Ben782
| Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - 08:18 pm: |
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I think we all missunderstood the meaning behind this tread..... Wasnt there something on here, somewhere, where a guy made his own chain conversion kit and spend around 200 bucks with the whole thing?? Maybe it was $300..... |