| Author | Message | ||
     Toolinround |
Does anyone have any long term experience with the FreeSpirits belt tensioner? | ||
| Ftd |
Long term? I have one on my Uly. It has been installed for a couple years and maybe 10K miles. I got it in response to so many ULY's breaking belts. Does it help...I don't think anyone knows for sure. I do know that it doesn't hurt and it looks cool. That is good enough for me. YMMV Frank | ||
| Toolinround |
Thanks Frank! I broke a belt a few days ago on my way out of the woods. It was the original belt with over 20K on it. Fortunately I was out with some dirtbike friends and we were only 10 min from home. I was able to coast down a fire road to the gate, no pushing at all! | ||
| Ftd |
I went and reviewed my ULY's logbook to make sure of my figures. I am the original owner of the bike. After ~4 yrs and 23000 miles I swapped out orig. belt and rear wheel for 2010 wheel and newest version of the drive belt. A couple of thousand miles later I installed a FST. Bike now has 33500 miles. My plan was to eliminate any concerns regarding the rear wheel bearings and the belt. | ||
| Jesse_lackman |
I like that, it makes a lot of sense. Can you get them in the US somewhere or do you have to order them on the manufacturer site? | ||
| Trojan |
You cna order them from us as we are the UK agents for Free Spirits and ship to the US almost every day  http://www.twinshack.co.uk/Buell-parts/buell-xb/XB -Driveline/XB-Free-Spirits-Belt-Tensioner | ||
| Mhevezi |
I agree with FTD- I am at 25,000miles on my XT, and I am the third owner. Bought the bike at 10k. Put a FST on the bike soon after I bought it, swapped the belt and replaced the rear bearings. Like anything that moves, the Free Spirits Tensioner will require some cleaning and lubing from time to time, but it does look cool and gives me some reassurance in the rear belt/bearing area. I usually clean it, when I do the trans oil, or every other oil change. Is it really helping? Hard to say, but I can't see where it hurts. It makes ME feel better and for ME that makes it totally worth it. (*insert lawyer's disclaimer*) Happy Buelling | ||
| Teeps |
Mhevezi Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2014 Is it really helping? Hard to say, but I can't see where it hurts. It makes ME feel better and for ME that makes it totally worth it. (*insert lawyer's disclaimer*) Happy Buelling Respect. | ||
| Turf_moor |
I got one from TH in Darlington, England at 13000. Bike has done 19K now. New belt at 13K. I would argue that the main benefit is taking pressure off the gearbox output shaft. I also have a grease nipple fitted to allow light grease to be pumped periodically on to the needle bearing, which without this mod relies on oil mist for lubrication. | ||
| Mgd |
I installed one on my Uly, and one on my wife's Scg. I say it relieves the rear bearing and belt of unwanted stress. If nothing else, it makes removing the rear wheel/belt ten times easier. | ||
| Toolinround |
What kind of miles are people getting out of their belts and rear wheel bearings with the tensioner installed? | ||
| Trojan |
We have customers with 60K + with the tensioner fitted (provided the bike and tensioner are looked after of course). I'm sure there will be people with the same mileage without a tensioner, and of course you could still break a belt even with the tensioner fitted (belts still have a finite life after all) but I can say hand on heart that they work and certainly give bearings and belts a much easier life than stock. I'll tell you how you can actually physically feel the difference compared to stock, and that is when you just wheel the bike along by hand without the motor running. You will feel the resistance is much less with the tensioner fitted, and once you amplify that resistance with speed it must have a wear implication on belts and bearings. Unscientific I know, but it is very noticeable. | ||
| Turf_moor |
I was told by an experienced Buell mechanic that the main benefit is to take the strain off the gearbox output shaft, especially on the Ulysses with its long-travel suspension. That it increases belt/bearing life is a bonus. He says every XB should have one. | ||
| Trojan |
the main benefit is to take the strain off the gearbox output shaft It also takes the strain off the rear wheel bearings This and the gearbox bearing benefit were actually bonuses as the original brief was to take the tightness out of the belt run | ||
| Turf_moor |
I see, Trojan. The gearbox is the expensive bit, though. I think they look cool as well. Mine is yellow and I bought it from you in 2011. | ||
| Turf_moor |
How are you supposed to maintain the tensioner, Trojan? I clean it with WD40. | ||
| Trojan |
Maintenance is simply a matter of keeping it reasonably clean and lubricated so that it doesn't seize with crud WD40 is OK but tends to be a bit 'sticky' so grit gets stuck to it. Light Machine oil is probably better. The springs can last a long time but we recommend checking them for damage/cracks or wear at around 5K miles. We keep spare springs in stock if required. | ||
| Uly_man |
I fitted one to my 06 bike and the 10 bike came with one. Both bikes had AKE belts and they all, three, broke at about 200 miles after a rear, about 7500 miles, tyre change. No idea why as I was super careful about doing it. We will see what happens with the AKF belt. I find they make for a MUCH smoother gear change on the ULY. If you are, as I am, in traffic a lot it is worth the money for that alone. My transmission is very smooth and slick. Almost as good as my Suzuki RF900 which had the later water cooled GSX-R engine. Dam that was a FAST bike. | ||
| Dick_stilton |
Iv had one on my 05 since years and never did much but clean and lube and since I never had a bearing problem it must be a good thing. | ||
| Rbuck53 |
The Motor Company has been putting rear belt drives on their bikes for over 30 years. Some of these models I've owned and sold with over 60-70k miles on them. I've even owned a belt driven trike which I rode pretty darn hard. All had original belts from new...never broke one! This Ulysses is my 6th Buell, all of them belt driven. So...out of all these belt driven motorcycles why is the Ulysses the most notorious motorcycle for chewing up belts and spitting them out at relatively low miles? This just seems ludicrous at a time when belts are driving superchargers on 6000hp dragsters, and 500hp, belt driven, V8 Boss Hoss bikes are smoking their rear tires for miles on end. Yes, I am sure Boss Hoss motorcycles break belts, but not as frequently as the Ulysses does which has only 1/5th the hp. What is going on here? | ||
| Trojan |
why is the Ulysses the most notorious motorcycle for chewing up belts and spitting them out at relatively low miles? It isn't just the Ulysses, it is XB models in general. Maybe the Uly with its longer travel suspension puts even more strain on the belt, but I've seen plenty of other XB models with broken belts caused by shock loads. | ||
| Glenn |
Hi Trojan, For United States sales, is the VAT charged? What's the total with shipping to zip 28078 please? | ||
| Jesse_lackman |
Uly's breaking belts almost has to have something to do with the geometry during suspension travel. To check one would have to measure the length between the center of the drive sprocket and the center of the driven sprocket through the suspension travel. Then there is the idler/tensioner, in a fixed location, a location not incorporated in suspension travel, and on the bottom of the belt meaning it will tighten the belt when the suspension extends. The only way that tightening could be avoided is if the idler/tensioner were moved to the swing arm. If it were located on the swing arm it would not tighten/loosen the belt during suspension travel. One other issue, when I changed the rear tire the belt had a rock embedded in it. The rock wore a pattern in both sprockets and the face of the idler pulley. That means the rock was embedded so deep it stuck through the outside face of the belt. I would think that could easily become a failure point. | ||
| Jesse_lackman |
If the belt breaks where the rock was embedded the rock would disappear and most likely one would not know there was a rock in the belt. | ||
| Terrycoxusa |
Jesse lackman On long travel dirt bikes, the designers keep the output sprocket as close to the swingarm pivot as possible. This reduces the sprocket to sprocket distance variation as the suspension changes. Also, I was looking at some photos on another user group of failed free spirit belt tensioners. The company claimed a .2 % failure rate, but that is all that was reported to them. There is an issue of not enough material left around one of the pivots, and it breaks off. After reading about them, I don't think I would buy one. | ||
| Tankhead |
Cue in Trojan in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 | ||
| Uly_man |
"Uly's breaking belts almost has to have something to do with the geometry during suspension". The story goes is that the "arc of travel" of the rear wheel, on suspension compression, is not perfect on the XB bikes. Or in other words the belt tightens more as the wheel goes up. While it may have been ok on a Firebolt, for example, the Uly has a LOT MORE travel to deal with. One thing IS A FACT and that is that belts work best with a constant tension and even drive loads. If you ride a Uly on long-ish runs then that, more or less, is what you would be doing to the belt but if you ride the bike in the conditions I do then it is going to cut the life of the belt. And in my case I have yet to get more than 7500 miles out of a belt on either my 06 or 10 Ulys. On the other hand I have found that a high quality "X" ring chain set on this power of bike, even with a Scotoiler, would only be good for around 10k miles in my ride conditions. Once you factor in the cost of the oiler, oil, extra cleaning of the bike, a chain breaker and riveter to fit it and the extra time to do it over the belt it is not all that more even for 7500 miles and we in the UK pay a LOT more for belts than you do in the USA. For me it just a "fact of Life" with the Uly in my ride conditions and I am used to it now. One example is that my last belt went on pulling out of my drive on the way to work? It took me less than 15 mins to fit the new belt, was not even late for work and no oily hands either. Try that with a chain set? | ||
| Reepicheep |
I drilled my mounting holes on the tensioner a few sizes bigger with a step drill, and bolted it back up. At 25k, I put on a new belt and I carry the still unbroken original in a side bag in case of breakage. Much cheaper in the long run than chains and sprockets. | ||
| Terrycoxusa |
Also, the belt is probably tightest when the swingarm is horizontal, so the extra travel of the XB12 shouldn't be a factor in belt wear. And I agree with Ulyman, a chain setup is probably more expensive mileage wise. My Suzuki DR650 has worn out the chain and sprockets at 9500 miles. But I did have a Kawasaki GPZ1100 whose chain was still going strong at 25,000 miles. | ||
| Glenn |
So Reepicheep, by doing this you are kind of "slotting" the hole with the oversize diameter, to relieve little of the pre-tension being applied by the tensioner? I assume when you bolt it back up the bolts are against the edge of the oversize hole and then you are torquing them up correct? |
