Replacing Drive Chain with a belt?

I've seen/heard some other 'chain' driven bikes having had that removed and re-fitted with a 'belt'... was wondering if anyone has had thoughts of doing this to the Bandit (or done it) and all the pros and cons to such a job - if possible..

There is a guy on the Maximum Suzuki forums that has a Bandit with a belt drive.

Would hate to get a rock between the belt and rear pulley. It might just split the belt.

Saw it on TWT as well, in the Mega thread about post #6643. The belt is kevlar, a rock would probably do more damage to the cogs than the belt. Saves a bit on weight 3.5lb vs 11.5. No oiling.

Cost was US$550, compared to new sprockets and chains hmm...

Does sound good - particularly the part about 'no' oil...

The belts are reinforced with kevlar or other types of polyaramid fibres.The belt itself is made of rubber like polymers.

A stone trapped between the belt and pulley will split the belt.- It happens all the time on Harleys in NZ.

You can't split and re-rivet a belt,so when you need to replace the stone damaged belt on the road,you will have to remove the swing arm to do so.

Thats a neat idea. Wuold love to see one in the flesh.

Here's a hideously priced German one:

http://www.vh-motorradtechnik.de/products/en/Belt-Drive-Kits/Suzuki/Suzuki-GSF-1250-Bandit-WVCH.html

I'd eat that up and spit it out in no time at all .Complete POX .

gus wrote:I'd eat that up and spit it out in no time at all .Complete POX .

In your dreams. My Uncles drive belt on his Harley is 40,000km old. It has smoked off 4 or 5 full tyres(lot more small burn outs). He Clutch up wheellies all the time and the bike is 340kg, he is 130kg. And as for rocks in the belt spiting them, It does happen, but rarely. And there is shit loads of shit on the roads out here.

Just out of interest, anyone know why Harley's with modified motors use chain final drive and not belt?

b12mick wrote:Just out of interest, anyone know why Harley's with modified motors use chain final drive and not belt?

The more power, the wider the belt has to be & some have big power with huge torque. Add a big fat tyre and there is no room left for the belt. At the end of day steel is the strongest.

The first item in the race kit for a Buell was to replace the belt with a chain. Belt is nice a quiet and low maintenancee for the road as long as there is not a huge amount of torque and not a lot of stones. From what I have heard the stone problem is worse when you have new bitumen and the stones become sticky little shits and then sit in the teeth on the belt. We should all buy BMW's with a shft drive and have no money for petrol and then life would be easy.
Mark

Reardo wrote:

b12mick wrote:Just out of interest, anyone know why Harley's with modified motors use chain final drive and not belt?

The more power, the wider the belt has to be & some have big power with huge torque. Add a big fat tyre and there is no room left for the belt. At the end of day steel is the strongest.

A mate has a Harley softail with modified Revtech motor (108ci?). It has snapped quite a few belts. He is over having to strip the bike to change belts so he is looking to go to a decent 530 chain so that it won't snap when doing a burn out

reddog wrote:

Reardo wrote:

b12mick wrote:Just out of interest, anyone know why Harley's with modified motors use chain final drive and not belt?

The more power, the wider the belt has to be & some have big power with huge torque. Add a big fat tyre and there is no room left for the belt. At the end of day steel is the strongest.

A mate has a Harley softail with modified Revtech motor (108ci?). It has snapped quite a few belts. He is over having to strip the bike to change belts so he is looking to go to a decent 530 chain so that it won't snap when doing a burn out

No shit. My Uncles is waiting his motor to come back with a 107ci kit in it. that will piss him off if it snaps belt all the time.

There s a reason why HD powered drag bikes run 2+ inch belts.'
Many engines have timing belts these days as well as drive belts. Timing belts have huge torque loads and are good for 60,000km or more.

2wheelsagain wrote:Timing belts have huge torque loads and are good for 60,000km or more.

Most timing belts these days are good for 100,000kms or more however it is kms traveled on the road and that is a different thing when we talk timing belts. The closest you'd probably get is engine hours. Roughly 1000 engine hours is what we are talking about in this example.

Timing belts are subject to nowhere near the torque loads of a drive belt like on a bike. They also don't get the punishment a bikes drive belt gets

dhula wrote:

2wheelsagain wrote:Timing belts have huge torque loads and are good for 60,000km or more.

Most timing belts these days are good for 100,000kms or more however it is kms traveled on the road and that is a different thing when we talk timing belts. The closest you'd probably get is engine hours. Roughly 1000 engine hours is what we are talking about in this example.

Timing belts are subject to nowhere near the torque loads of a drive belt like on a bike. They also don't get the punishment a bikes drive belt gets

But they're nowhere near as wide.

I did a bit of asking around and there appear to be two reasons for replacing belts with chains (final drive). The first is a chain is less likely to fail under power and the second has to do with 'power loss' to the rear. Apparantly there isn't as much power loss to the rear wheel when using a chain compared to a belt. Shaft drives loose more power again.

Here's an interesting read Chain V Belt
Its starting to make a lot of sense to me

2wheelsagain wrote:Here's an interesting read Chain V Belt
Its starting to make a lot of sense to me

That was an interesting read mate. I'd try belt drive if was a bit cheaper.