A Little Maintenance Eye Opener

kz1000st · 08-18-2014, 07:08 PM

Today that little voice, we all have, in the back of my head started yelling. "Change the Belt, Stupid". I have over 9,000 miles on the Fashion and just felt it was time. Good thing I did. When I pulled off the side case I was greeted by cracks between almost every tooth. The outside looked new but the belt was dry and cracking. Since the Fashion is a 2009 I guess that should have been expected. I had a nice, new Bando (made in Japan) belt from Parts for Scooters that I had browbeaten Matt into stocking 8-).

The cracks were the first surprise. Second surprise. After changing the belt and changing the drive case oil I was studying the old belt and something looked odd. You see, on Aramid fiber belts you see a white fiber layer near the outside of the belt. My Gates and new Bando had it and the Gates Powerlink non-Kevlar belt I also have (don't ask) doesn't. On closer examination I could see faded lettering on the old belt. "Bando" it said. "Hmmmm CF Moto puts Bando belts in their scooters. Nice." I also saw that all the bearings in my transmission said "Made in Japan" when I replaced the clutch shaft. Also nice. It bodes well for the future.

The moral to me is that if you have a 2008-09 scooter with the original belt, replace it. Mine was dry and rubbed but didn't appear to be stretched. 10,000 miles is coming soon.

bnc · 08-19-2014, 01:48 AM

I have seen the same. Here is a photo of the belt I took of my bike when I first bought it used. In each valley of the belt is a crack that goes almost down to the cord which is visible in the side view.

Other than the cracks, the length and width of the belt met (just barely) factory specifications.

rks · 01-25-2015, 06:03 AM

I know this is an old thread, but I just bought a new belt for my Jonway 150. After reading this thread last summer, I thought that maybe I should change mine out at seasons end. Belt has right at 4800 miles on it, Gates Premium 835 20 30 (PL30705). Ordered another just like it.

Removed the old belt, cleaned it up, flipped it inside out to inspect....and found no cracking what so ever. Belt looks good, and measured 18.08mm across the top. (I read somewhere the wear limit is 17mm) So I'm thinking my belt is 2/3 used up, I've worn off about 2mm.

Now here is what surprised me....the brand new belt measures 19.20mm (taken at 4 different locations around the belt), so actually I've only worn off 1.12mm, in 4800 miles. So it looks like I'd be safe running the old one another season, which for me, is 2000 or so miles. I'm really not a cheap bastard.....just hate to throw something out prematurely.

Have any of you measured the width of a new belt? This 19.2 figure really threw me...that's not even close to the stated 20mm. If the length was off by the same 4%, it would only be 802mm.