Today I had the pleasure of spending most of my day at the Harley dealership. I needed a new rear tire, so I called the dealership to see if they could change it while I waited. They said no problem; it should only take about an hour and a half. I got there about 9:30 a.m. expecting to be home by noon, at the latest. Well, I'm glad I brought a book along, because around 1:30, in comes my service rep, holding a severed drive belt in his hand, and a "good news/bad news" sort of look on his face. The good news was that Harley would replace my drive belt free of charge; the bad news was that I had a brand new tire with a marred sidewall which they wouldn't replace. The service rep explained that the belt "broke" when they were giving it a test drive. The tester had been stranded and they had to trailer my bike back to the shop (I guess this explained the four hour tire change). While looking at the belt, I was wondering how and why it broke, because these belts supposedly last the "lifetime" of the bike and my bike only has 12,000 miles on it. The point at which the belt failed looked like it had been cut with a razor, it had absolutely no frays. I first thought they had over tensioned it, but if that was the case I think it would have been frayed. I suppose the reason it failed will remain a mystery, at least to me. Of course I had to wait another hour and a half for them to replace the belt. On a positive note -- I almost finished my book (It's a good book and I plan on doing a review of it in a future post).
5 comments:
Chalk me up for two belts. I'm on my third. It is kevlar this time.
Mr. Motorcycle,
So much for believing what the dealership says about the longevity of its parts. I guess I'll replace the belt whenever I change the rear tire. I suppose I should be glad that one of their guys was riding it when it broke and not me(saving me a towing bill plus the cost of repairs).
Had to think a long time to find a bright side. Add up the time you saved cleaning, lubing, and adjusting a chain. Does that and the waiting time equal out over 12,000 miles?
Gotta say I love shaft drive more and more!
I have a friend who rides an Ultra and what he says goes right along with your experience and mr. motorcycles.
I gotta say that I'm with Irondad on this one, when I bought my KLR this spring, it was the first time that I have owned a chain bike in almost twenty years, my next bike will definitely be a shafty again.
E.T.
Irondad,
It probably does, and I think I prefer the belt drive over the chain. Besides I should have expected the belts failure because anything with the word "belt" is gonna have a shortened lifespan in the Arizona desert.
E.T.,
I've been thinking about getting a BMW for a while so maybe my next bike will be a shaft drive as well.
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