After an accident and 5 weeeks on crutches I got the punky buellster back on the road. Loud, smokey, and obnoxious and Iove it! Well, I dropped the clutch and broke the drive belt. I have some ideas on how to fix it but need advice from the GRM experts! The belt is broken in half and I'm thinking about sewing it back together and limping it home the 10 miles I need to go. Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated.
Thanks folks!
Trailer the bike home and replace the belt with a new one. I see very few other options here.
Be weary of making cheapskate repairs to things that rotate at high speed in close proximity to your flesh..
Replace is your only option. there are Kevlar fiber in the belt that run the circumference to control stretch. Any repair will quickly pull out thus leave you unable to move = accident #2 and maybe #3 if you get rear ended..
44
staples! or pantyhose! I saw it on InitialD so i know it works...
but, yeah, you should probably borrow a truck....
Trailer or truck, then a new belt.
Thanks, I think I'll end up putting it in the pickup. I thought I blew the clutch, luckily it was only the belt. At least I made someones day, bad biker cuts traffic, goes to take off and ends up pushing it off the road.
Thanks again folks!
Yup, new belt is the fix. There used to be an emergency belt repair kit sold by HD. It had screws that went into the belt and was highly specialized. Probably cost half as much as a new belt. If I recall, it was tested and the patched belt lasted as long as the unpatched. I don't think I saw one for the narrower Sportster type belts, though.
and to think....my local HD shop says those belts last 100,000 miles....pssshhhhh
They do if they don't get cut. All you need to do is nick one in the kevlar inner fibers and SNAP.
44Dwarf wrote:They do if they don't get cut. All you need to do is nick one in the kevlar inner fibers and SNAP.
chances of that NOT happening?
Given all of the covers on them, I would suggest nil. The drive belts that have picked up pebbles or otherwise been damaged, every one I have seen has been missing the protective covers.
Granted, the bikes look better without the protective covers.
After I stopped doing wheelies with my dresser, I stopped ruining belts. Belts are great, low (like zero) maintenance, no oil slung everywhere, etc., but they are not as strong as a good chain. For a monster motor or a bike I wanted to burn up the street with, I would still go chain. And I hate chains.
Thanks for the advice. After thinking about it, I popped the shell off the truck and hauled it down like a criminal.
Now I get to wait for HD to get the belt. They don't stock anything for the buells! The new belt was around 100$ so it wasn't cheap but it was time for a new one. Dropping the clutch is where the belt will break, if you make it up to speed my bet is you are alright.
My belt actually had a small nick in it, which is where it broke. I guess over 20k miles on a belt isn't bad.
Thanks again for the replies!
