Re: Of belt drives and rear end failures

[Bob Hadden <kbhadden@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Paige.  Almost correct.  We can expect a BMW to have a single sided 
swing arm.  This makes the belt change pretty easy if you set it up 
like the F650CS where the rear pulley stays with the swing arm when the 
wheel is removed.  There is some tension issue to deal with, but 
otherwise not a bad job to replace the belt.  These things really work 
well on  a 50 hp bike.  And the HDs have a lot of torque at low speed, 
so I suspect a belt would be quite reliable for anything BMW would 
make.  For  me, I'm waiting for this new 800 twin to come out.  That 
should be belt and about 70-80 hp.  Looks like a good combination to 
me.

Bob Hadden '05R12GS, '62R27

On Sep 12, 2005, at 9:28 AM, plpklt@xxxxxxx wrote:

>  I don't know that much about belt drives except they seem to be 
> better than I ever thought they would be.  However a friend of mine 
> bought a new harley and the blet squeaked. The dealer kept trying 
> everything except replacing the belt.  When asked why not try that as 
> a fix he pointed out the belt has no master link and the backend of 
> the bike has to be completely disassembled to get it on and off.  So I 
> am sure the labor to change one of these belts is also not a small 
> thing.
>
> I suspect the work to change a belt must be similair to changing out 
> our clutches..but atleast you expect a clutch job to be a big deal..
>
> paige

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