Dirt road question

[greginnm]

I'm contemplating buying a RT but I live out in the country and drive down a dirt/caliche road for two miles to get to the house. I have concerns with the belt drive/sprockets being damaged. Is this a common occurrence or is there an enclosed belt guard to alleviate any problems?

Thanks in advance
Greg

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

As long as you don't have a lot of deep potholes, just drive at a speed that makes sense ..... 2 miles at 10 mph is going to take awhile tho ...... Mike

[SPYD3R]

while riding on a hot-top road, SC 153, a construction truck, 10 wheeler, in front of me dropped a small amount of crushed stone, about 1/2" size... i didn't have anywhere to go; on coming traffic & a ditch on the right, and time wasn't on my side, so i went straight through it... in about 10 ft. my belt was trash... $304 for a new belt, and $100 for installation, and i was riding off with a smile on my face... all part of owning these beautiful toyz....
Dan P
SPYD3R

[Peter Aawen]

Greg, I do thousands of miles a year of ryding on my Spyder on dirt & loose chip 'sealed' roads, & so far, basically by mainly ryding 'sensibly', I haven't had any issues or belt/sprocket problems - I hafta admit to occasionally sliding the tail just a little tho!

Just keep your speed down a tad (within reason... like Mike said, if you've got 500+ miles of dirt ahead of you, travelling at 2-10mph just ain't gonna do the job of getting you there quickly! ) & try to avoid ryding in such a way as to slide the Spyder around a lot &/or throw up a lot of gravel from your wheels, fit the extra belt guard if you really feel the need (I haven't), and ryde!

As SPYD3R alluded, it's the bouncing sliding moving gravel type stuff that's likely to do the instant expensive damage, so if you try to avoid that if you can & once you hit the dirt/gravel travel slower than you would on the superslab (which you probably should be doing anyway if you're on dirt/loose gravel) then the risks of belt damage are no more/greater than they are for any other belt driven bike - and just like mine, there are a whole lotta them out there who've never had any issues, many with over 50,000 miles under their belts!!

Ride More, Worry Less - just be reasonably sensible with your ryding!

[mtbear]

I live 2 miles up a dirt road also and have had no problem with belt or sprocket. just take it easy.
mtbear

[Firefly]

As others have said.. probably best to take it a little easy.. but 10 mph seems a bit extreme. I would think 25-30 should be fine. I ran my 2008 GS on gravel and dirt all the time.. without the belt guards... and was anything BUT easy on it. I'd do fish-tales, etc.
Never had a belt problem in 75,000 miles.

[Chupaca]

As stated above taking it a bit slower you should be fine. There are also some additional guards you can get from our vendors to help...

[PistonBlown]

All the riders I know who have damaged their belt (me included) have had it happen in the same circumstance. Freshly laid chip and tar where there tars still wet so the stones stick to your tires and flick up.

Normal dirt tracks don't seem to be an issue as long as you don't act like a hoon.

Ridden this route on mine with no issues other than nanny kicking in when she shouldn't on some of the steep uphill bits when the rear wheel lost traction. The river crossings were a bit worrying but the Spyder coped:-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0P8...youtu.be&t=412

PS I have got a Spyder Pops 'Missing belt Guard'.

[dwainjohnson]

Last year I picked up a stone and trashed my drive belt on my 2014 RTL. $600 to install new belt in Taylorsville NC. I will not ride on dirt roads because of this. I installed the missing belt guard from Spyderpops and so far no more problems

[Bob Denman]

Get the Belt Guards, and keep your speeds down...

[greginnm]

Thank you for the responses, I was worried about the dirt road issue but it seems if I purchase the guards from Spyderdoc it will alleviate my worries. I will go and test drive a Can Am soon and sse how it goes, I gotta tell you guys, I'm pretty pumped about getting one.

Greg

[Bob Denman]

Let us know how your test ride goes: good luck!

[2dogs]

while riding on a hot-top road, SC 153, a construction truck, 10 wheeler, in front of me dropped a small amount of crushed stone, about 1/2" size... i didn't have anywhere to go; on coming traffic & a ditch on the right, and time wasn't on my side, so i went straight through it... in about 10 ft. my belt was trash... $304 for a new belt, and $100 for installation, and i was riding off with a smile on my face... all part of owning these beautiful toyz....
Dan P
SPYD3R

Almost the same thing happened to me. A road construction flagman directed bumper to bumper traffic over some freshly laid and unpacked blacktop and I had no alternative but to stay in my place in traffic. By the time I heard the crunching coming from my sprockets it was too late to avoid the hazard. Long story short, the construction company paid the bill for a new belt. $450, the sprockets were ok.

[Habib]

SNIP>> long as you don't act like a hoon.<<SNIP.

Cool word, but WTF is a "hoon"?

[2dogs]

Cool word, but WTF is a "hoon"?

hoonigan. A hoon or hooning: a person who participates in any type of reckless driving including but not limited to drifting, drag racing, and crashing.

[ARtraveler]

The posters above pretty much have you covered. Being a conservative rider, I would recommend installing the belt guard--just to be safe. Conservative riding should also help in not kicking up to many rocks. Checking your belt often may also help.

Don't let the dirt road issue keep you from a . Let us know what you do.

[Bob Denman]

Kind of like a Hooligan; right?

[PistonBlown]

Cool word, but WTF is a "hoon"?

2dogs has got the definition covered. I do try and not use Kiwi/Aussie terms on here but occasionally one pops out:-)

[Highwayman2013]

Cool word, but WTF is a "hoon"?

This guy is a professional Hoonigan:
or this:

[SpyderAnn01]

When you wash your Spyder be sure to scrub off the radiators. I had overheating type issues twice and the common denominator was riding on dirt roads followed by riding in rain.