| Author | Message | ||
     Pabuell |
It has been a while since I saw a broken belt post here, but unfortunately it happened to me on 5/1/08. Riding home from work in fairly heavy traffic and the belt just broke. Luckily I was able to pull over and did not get run over. Still, it sucked, having to trailer the bike home and all. On the positive side though, New Castle HD/Buell (Pa) replaced the belt the next day under warranty. Since my local Buell dealer quit selling Buells I have to go 60 some miles to New Castle. They took me in without an appointment and did the job while I waited. So, at least I had a good dealer experience. BTW, there was 15,140 miles on the bike when the belt broke. It was a very nice break too, like someone cut it with a pair of scissors. | ||
| Teeps |
Did you take a photo of the broken belt ends? What year is your bike? | ||
| Dr_greg |
Yes, it's been a while since any belts have broken, apparently. I am just past 46,000 miles on my original belt ('06 Uly). I'm wondering how long mine will last, and intend to ride it until it breaks. I do try to keep it clean. I carry a spare belt and tools. When mine does break, I'm sure it will be at the most inconvenient place and time. BTW, if it makes 100,000 miles I will change it anyway. Glad yours was harmless, if annoying, and is being warrantied. | ||
| Bross |
These "failures", Uly belts, bearings, BMW final drives have to be because of poor quality control in a supplier factory. It's not an inherent design flaw in the bikes themselves, or you would see way more "consistent" failures and you wouldn't see so many bikes doing high mileage WITHOUT any failures. I guess we have our global economy to thank for this. :-( Just stinks unless you get one of the "good" ones. | ||
| Pabuell |
Teeps, no I did not take any photos of the broken belt. Never really occurred to me at the time. But it appeared to be a nice clean break of the rubber, and then the fibers pulled apart. There was a good 1/2 to 1 inch of fibers hanging out of each end of the belt. My Uly is an '06, picked it up on July 1, 2006 (after my first one got totaled, nearly two years ago now, time flies.) I have been riding belt drive HD's and now Buells for 20 years, and this is the first belt problem I have ever had. In fact, I have never know anyone personally who has broken a belt. Lucky me I guess. The guys at the dealer were surprised, they said they never see a belt break like this, under "normal" riding conditions. Could certainly have been worse, and now I have a new belt! | ||
| Johnboy777 |
"Since my local Buell dealer quit selling Buells I have to go 60 some miles to New Castle." Glad you are okay. I have a dealer about 10 min. from me (Biketown HD) and decided on New Castle HD instead based on advice here on Bad (they are about 50 min. from me), for my 1,000 mi. service. They are the best. Rob's the Buell tech there, and knows his stuff. Nice people. John | ||
| Etennuly |
My wife and I stopped in there (NCHD) on a trip to Northern Pa. when the '06 Uly's first came out in '05. I had my City-X and her Blast in the back of our pick up. They were very into Buells. I was walking around their show room and a sales guy asked if he could help me and I told him about my interest in a Ulysses. He said that they had just received their first one and it was out in the back building. He took the time to unlock the building and show me the newly assembled bike that was already sold. He also took the time to come over to our truck and check out our bikes. He let me sit on it and I was hooked. Funny, when you appreciate something as awesome as the Ulysses, you don't forget the first one you saw. Hmmmmm sounds like a query for a new thread!???! | ||
| Bertotti |
Rubber doesn't just break nice and clean. Something probably cut your belt then the water started migrating into the cords and destruction followed. I would be thinking hard as to what could of cut your belt a bit. Any road hazards or PO'd people you can think of? | ||
| Pabuell |
Bertotti, I don't know enough about the rubber coating on the belt to say if a clean break is unusual or not. A friend of mine also thought someone may have scored the belt, leading to the failure. I hate to be so paranoid about it, but you never know. As for people I may have pissed off, that could be thousands. I have been a Probation Officer/Supervisor of a Probation Center for 17 years. There is a good chance I would have upset someone in that time. However, I would expect one of these guys to do something more destructive, like slash my tires or do more visible damage. I also do not recall upsetting anyone to that extent in quite some time. I do park my bike in a fenced in lot and can see it directly out of my office window. Like I said, it may be possible but I doubt it. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Idiots looking for revenge would go after your tires first, I would think. | ||
| Hootis29 |
My first one broke at just over 15K, jumping a set of railroad tracks. Buell says the belt is good for the life of the bike....so I called them to see if I was getting a new bike or a new belt....I did'nt get either. | ||
| Longdog_cymru |
Talking about broken belts, over here in UK, the price for a new belt is £157, that is over $300 !!!!!!!!!! | ||
| Brown_e |
I have 83,000 miles on the belt of my Ultra. The belt on my Uly is suppose to be superior. | ||
| Treadmarks |
19,000 miles. Wheelies and hard stops every day, still on the original belt. | ||
| Hughlysses |
My original belt had a lot of surface cracks on the toothed side at ~8500 miles, so I replaced it with a new one and kept the old as a spare. I'd say that belt had suffered negligible abuse so I was a little concerned at its condition with only 8500 miles. I talked to Al Lighton about it a little when I ordered the replacement from him. I believe his take is that the occasional belt failures are mainly a quality control issue. These belts are pretty complex fabrications- you've got this woven Kevlar fiber matrix in the middle, with a pebbled rubber/plastic coating on the outside, and a rubber/plastic toothed coating on the inside. The teeth appear to have another layer of a very slick coating applied over this. This thing has to somehow be all molded together, probably in one or two steps. Somehow you've got to hold the Kevlar in precisely the right location in 3 dimensions for the entire length of the belt while the rubber/plastic material is injected and then "sets". I imagine there's variability in the Kevlar part, the hardness of the rubber/plastic materials, how quickly they set, etc. How they can turn these things out as well as they do on a mass production basis boggles my mind. I guess it's not surprising at all that we should get some random failures with no warnings. The one really useful bit of info I've seen posted here is that at least one rider noticed his belt went very slack shortly before it broke. I always make it a point to push up on the lower part of the belt between the guards before I go for a long ride. I figure that increases my odds of catching a problem in the driveway rather than out on the road. | ||
| Dr_greg |
I have 83,000 miles on the belt of my Ultra. The belt on my Uly is suppose to be superior. That's what I'm talking 'bout! Glad to hear it. | ||
| Adrian_8 |
I have broken two belts just by snapping the throttle open, probably in second gear...both on blacktop...dealer put them on under warranty... | ||
| Jb2607 |
Do you have an "enemy" who may of partially tampered with the belt prior to it breaking. | ||
| Pabuell |
I have been riding belt drive HD big twins, and now the Uly, on and off for nearly 20 years and I have never had a belt problem. Well over a combined 150,000 miles. Of course my big twins were not ridden quite so hard (sport bike wise) as the Uly has been. I just chalk it up to one of the wonders of motorcycling. That is why I have an AMA MoTo membership, for those days when I am a thousand or so miles from home. As a recovering cynic I am not trying to think that someone would have sabotaged the belt, too many years in law enforcement perhaps! |
