Scootworks Belt Drive Failure

[Chad in Michigan]

Copied from the Magna Riders Forum:

"   18485.1

Well folks, I wanted this belt drive to be the boss. But after 4000 miles, it gave up. Over 12" of teeth have stripped off. It happened when I got on the throttle to pass a car, three times. This is the biggest fear of running a belt drive on any high powered machine. I was heading to the mountains and was just enterng them, two and a half hours from home. Blew the whole weekend.

No, there is no sign of debris as the cause. There is plenty of sign of wear on the belt and pulleys. Scootworks substituted a Goodyear belt for the Gates belt. The Gates belt has a hard smooth teflon contact surface which would glide smoothly on and off the pulleys. The Goodyear belt has a rubber contact surface which is not slippery like teflon. The kit was designed around the Gates belt. Perhaps a little belt lube would have been the key, but that defeats the purpose.

If they don't come up with the proper solution, I'm going to stick with the reliable chain drive. I emailed several pictures and offered to send the kit back so they can get a good look at the damage. I told them I'd test it to the extreme. I think I did good, don't you?

If you have this kit, did you get a Goodyear belt? I will be keeping my eye on this issue.

P.S. (My bike was one of their measurement and test platforms.)"

[lragan]

I have every sympathy for the engineers who are trying to develop a viable alternative to the venerable roller chain drive, and hope they succeed.

Roller chain is the most efficient mechanical power coupling mechanism going.  When you come back from a rigorous ride at highway speed, stop and feel the chain and sprockets.  If new and well lubricated, they will not even be warmer than other metals on the rear of the bike. like, say, the swing arm or metal wheel.  There is almost no heat loss.  The same cannot be said for the final drive at the rear wheel of shaft driven motorcycles, or of flexible belts, toothed or smooth. 

My uncle made a good business in my farming community home town replacing chains and sprockets on "combines" (grain harvester/threshing machines) with v-belts and pulleys, which were lower maintenance alternatives.  He was always careful to point out that the machine would require more input power as a result.  The business ended when manufacturers adopted the pulley drives as original equipment, and my uncle's shop reverted to machining and welding until he retired. 

[Sledge Hammer]

Not the first failure of a Scootworks system that I have read about. I like the idea of belt drive, but it doesn't sound to me like retrofitting belt drive with its higher tension onto a chain drive bike is a good idea.

The guy whose Magna was the Guinea pig posted a link to photos of his drive failure in post #14 on this thread: http://v4musclebike.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14346&posted=1#post14346. Note the wear on both pulleys. Belt failure notwithstanding, you'd get fewer miles out of a set of pulleys than out of a chain!

No, thanks. I'll stick with properly engineered and maintained chains and sprockets on my Magna.