lost 19 teeth from my drive belt

[IGETAROUND]

49K for mileage, coming home from a trip, down shifted to first gear, didn't let the clutch out; loud clunk, audible and tactile clunking with each revolution of the belt. Stopped to look at the belt; EVERY tooth on the belt broken loose, only one side of each tooth was still attached!!!

Got on the internet and looked up the closest spyder dealer, in Finley, Ohio. Limped the 15 miles to their shop, but no drive belts in stock. Called in Toledo, Ohio; yes they have a belt and will hold it for me. My son did a 1.5 hour round trip on his Triumph Tiger and $275.00 later returned with the belt with one hour and fifteen minutes left before the closing of American Power Sports.

Their mechanic crew installed the new belt and had me back on my way home. Total down time was 3.5 hours!!!! They went out of their way to make this happen; disassembling my bike while my son was getting the new belt for them to install. Oh did I mention that I have a trailer hitch on my bike, I was towing my time out camper when this all happened.

Kudos to American power sports and the Honda East in Toledo for working with me on this. Anyone in need of service or a new spyder would be well advised to frequent these establishments with your business.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

OMG .. glad your OK and didn't have an accident .... this is the worst belt disaster I've ever heard of .... a couple have snapped, but I've never heard of that many teeth coming off .....Mike

[Buckeye Chuck 54]

My belt did the same thing. While riding at 75 mph I heard and felt something wrong. I pulled over and saw 2 teeth on my belt gone. No worries, or so I thought. I made it 3 more miles and 10 were gone. I did make it home, about a third, gone. It was a cascade failure, one or two decide to go, the rest follow. Had to have my '14 RT-S towed. But it was the OEM belt and it lasted 108,000 miles. Got my money's worth. Chuck

OMG .. glad your OK and didn't have an accident .... this is the worst belt disaster I've ever heard of .... a couple have snapped, but I've never heard of that many teeth coming off .....Mike

[IGETAROUND]

OMG .. glad your OK and didn't have an accident .... this is the worst belt disaster I've ever heard of .... a couple have snapped, but I've never heard of that many teeth coming off .....Mike

Plan on taking the belt to local dealer and see if I can have them submit a ticket to BRP and send the belt to BRP in hopes of some insight as to what caused this. We all know that it wasn't the mileage or towing a trailer. Have never done burn outs or abused this in any way that I'm aware of.

[rogerb]

Happened to my 2010 RT with less than 60,000 miles. Scary and expensive.

[Chupaca]

Glad things went as they did. Quite an ordeal but with an amazing outcome. All fell into place and ...son and shop got you back on track..

[Buckeye Bleau]

Al, a great story, thank you for sharing and I am very happy that th outcome happened the way that it did. Wow, if you find out anything as to a cause please share it with us.
Chuck, I would guess that after 100k miles yours was just tired.

Joe

[ofdave]

glad it all worked out.
I have a hard time understanding why a Spyder dealer would not have a belt in stock.

[Samson]

I have not checked the manual yet but I wonder if the drive belt should be replaced at X miles or age like a timing belt in my Honda V-6 Crosstour? Why take a chance on causing more damage, getting stranded etc.. It's great to hear the dealer stepped up and helped you out, hats off to them . My bike is 1 year old and has 4000 miles now but here in Southwest the heat and dry weather will likely cause me more concern than the mileage.

[Easy Rider]

We all know that it wasn't the mileage or towing a trailer.

How exactly do we "know" that ?

Is there a recommended interval/mileage for changing out the belt ??

Often a CLOSE inspection of the belt can catch this before it actually fails. Who's been doing your routine maintenance ??

[Machinegunner]

My wife's 2008 GS broke her belt lengthways right down the middle. We found it when the mechanic was checking the front sprocket.

[IGETAROUND]

Happened to my 2010 RT with less than 60,000 miles. Scary and expensive.

Did they ever determine the cause of the failure???

[IGETAROUND]

How exactly do we "know" that ?

Is there a recommended interval/mileage for changing out the belt ??

Often a CLOSE inspection of the belt can catch this before it actually fails. Who's been doing your routine maintenance ??

We know that because @ 49K of mileage you shouldn't be experiencing a belt failure.

To my knowledge there is no recommended interval or mileage for replacement.

I did do a look see prior to leaving on my trip; no noticed irregularities to the teeth which were readily visible from a very cursory inspection when this happened. I'm not the tightest sphinctered individual on pre-ride inspections but the damage was too obvious to miss had it been present before my trip. I do my own maintenance.

[blitzkreig]

Loose stones or gravel are the bane of drive belts. And once one belt tooth is damaged the whole belt is sure to follow ...

[RinconRyder]

glad it all worked out.
I have a hard time understanding why a Spyder dealer would not have a belt in stock.

Me too. Unless there are a variety of belts for different models. Last time I was in my local dealer they had about a half dozen belts new on display. I don't remember if they were all identical though.

[Easy Rider]

We know that because @ 49K of mileage you shouldn't be experiencing a belt failure.

Your opinion. So far not supported by the other failure reports in this thread.

And I find it hard to believe that there is no recommendation for replacement.

AND I said a detailed inspection, which might require a bright light and maybe even some magnification.

It will be interesting to see what other high mileage owners have to say.

[RinconRyder]

And I find it hard to believe that there is no recommendation for replacement.

No Spyders have gotten that far yet?

[ruralgirl]

I second your praise of Honda East in Toledo. That's where I bought my Spyder for a super good price, and when we went to pick it up after delivery and assembly, they discovered the handlebar control module was bad, so they replaced it. Instead of letting us drive down there again a week later, they insisted on delivering the Spyder to us up in Michigan at no charge.

I'm also very happy with River Raisin Powersports in Monroe, MI. They do my mechanical work because they're closer to me (and are a 98% rural ryde versus city crap). They too bend over backwards to please.

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear of your ordeal, and I thank you for posting about it. I live on and ryde lots of gravel roads. This clinches it. I'm going to buy an extra belt to store in my Spyder.

[Peter Aawen]

Your opinion. So far not supported by the other failure reports in this thread.

And I find it hard to believe that there is no recommendation for replacement.
.......

It's not just an opinion, Easy, it's the engineering derived recommendation from the belt manufacturer supported by the actual experience of all those other Spyder ryders & similar belt users out there!! Apologies to them & recognising the trauma of their experiences, but really, so what that 3 other Ryders have reported a similar issue in this thread; what about ALL the other Ryders who've been able to ryde many 10's of thousands of miles WITHOUT any issues at all, some for more than 100,000 miles?!

So why on earth do you think there should be any recommendation for a needless change-out when out of the 'over 100,000' Spyders produced, no more than a few Spyder belts have ever failed?? And most of those were clearly attributable to picking up random debris, NOT just 'belt aging'!! And then there's the massive reliability exhibited in all the other uses the same type of Kevlar based belts are put to - the overwhelming evidence is that these types of belts are good for well over 100,000 miles unless they pick up some damage from road debris, & that generally tends to be terminal within a fairly short space of time/distance, so the statistical likelihood of random failure due to age is borderline miniscule.... any less at all and it would be completely non-existant!

Sure, I would've thought that having at least one replacement belt on hand for each different belt required by the various Can-Am offerings would be a smart thing to do from a Dealer's Customer Service point of view, but seriously, do you expect every Dealer to stock & every owner to change out their engine or their frame every 100,000 miles too?? What about their ball joints, or the front pulley, or any of the other components we hear about people having issues with here on the Forum?? Cos all those components actually have a significantly greater failure rate than the belts do!! Should they have a scheduled replacement too?!







Sorry, it's early here, I need

Ps: I'm glad you got out of that one without too much hassle IGETAROUND, & I'd assume the Dealer who did such a great job of getting you back on the road once your son picked up the spare DID check both the pulleys for damage?? Did they give you any idea of why they thought it failed in the first place??

[IGETAROUND]

Thanks Peter for your well thought out rebuttal. I too feel that this was some catastrophic failure, though uncertain as to why. American power sports opioned that this was from excessive heat. The front spocket was flawless, the rear had one tooth that was marred though smooth with no sharp edges.

As I posted earlier I will be talking with Leaders power sports to have them open a ticket with BRP. Not expecting BRP to cover any of the cost, but would appreciate their interpretation of why the belt failed. When I have that information I will certainly share that here on the forum.

Al in Kalamazoo

[imfleck]

Thanks Peter for your well thought out rebuttal. I too feel that this was some catastrophic failure, though uncertain as to why. American power sports opioned that this was from excessive heat. The front spocket was flawless, the rear had one tooth that was marred though smooth with no sharp edges.

As I posted earlier I will be talking with Leaders power sports to have them open a ticket with BRP. Not expecting BRP to cover any of the cost, but would appreciate their interpretation of why the belt failed. When I have that information I will certainly share that here on the forum.

Al in Kalamazoo

Off-topic, sorry.

I rode my motorcycle to Kalamazoo from Massachusetts (850 miles) this summer. Went to Leaders, RPM in Kalamazoo. They sold me my new Spyder at $11K LESS than I was negotiating in MA. Awesome deal, awesome delivery, awesome post-purchase support. My wife wants a Spyder next year and we'll probably recreate the journey to save BIG $$$.

[Easy Rider]

what about ALL the other Ryders who've been able to ryde many 10's of thousands of miles WITHOUT any issues at all, some for more than 100,000 miles?!

So why on earth do you think there should be any recommendation for a needless change-out when out of the 'over 100,000' Spyders produced, no more than a few Spyder belts have ever failed??

So, where ARE the Spyders that have gone more than 100K on the original belt ?? Haven't seen any here yet.

And.....you have no way to really know how many belts have failed overall.

Belts wear. Chains wear. Even transmission and rear end gears wear.

The critical point is doing a GOOD periodic inspection and changing it when signs of abnormal wear show up.

What IS the service recommendation for the belt ?
I can't look it up 'cause me and the Spyder are about 1000 miles apart right now.

[Fatcycledaddy]

So, where ARE the Spyders that have gone more than 100K on the original belt ?? Haven't seen any here yet.

I think that you missed post #3. He said he had 108.000 miles.

[Rogue Hawk]

It needs dentures

[Easy Rider]

I think that you missed post #3. He said he had 108.000 miles.

I went back and looked.

108,000 was the point at which it FAILED.

Not a good indication that they are good for over 100K......in my opinion.