Do Spyder Drive Belts age or wear out?

[petew]

I have a 2014 Spyder RT that has a little less than 5000 miles on it.
Since the tires are now over 10 years old, I feel that I should replace them due to their age.
My question is about the drive belt, do they age out or wear out? If the belt doesn't show any cracking or wear, then can I leave it alone?
The machine is parked in a garage so no high humidity or temperature extremes.

Pete

[NorwegianRT]

My 2012 RT has 15k miles on it and at the end of last season my belt gave in. I must admit I was not clever doing inspections on the belt, but suddenly about 6 inches of "teeth" peeled off while accelerating from a parking area and onto the road.
So I reckon the rubber gave up due to old age. Not sure on what average lifespan of these belts are, but mine lasted almost 12 years.
With this new and rather expensive belt, I will be inspecting it visually more often for sure.
If your belt has no cracks or wear, I would trust it for another season.

[BajaRon]

Everything ages and wears out. But the drive belt on the Spyder is pretty bullet proof. Check it once in awhile. But other than this, just ride and enjoy.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Everything ages and wears out. But the drive belt on the Spyder is pretty bullet proof. Check it once in awhile. But other than this, just ride and enjoy.

.... my 14 RT has over 80,000 mi., the tension is at 150 lbs +/- ( on the ground ) this is lower than OEM specs .... my belt looks fine .....good luck ...Mike

[FrogmanDave]

Everything ages and wears out.

Especially rubber.

But the drive belt on the Spyder is pretty bullet proof. Check it once in awhile. But other than this, just ride and enjoy.

I would trust what Ron says.

[bikerbillone]

Thanks Ron, gives me confidence, but then, I'm not a hard rider. The 20 RTL is perfect for me.

Minor problem, it awaits in the garage for me to climb up under to release the clip that holds the seat shock in the up position. Now to do that, I need to wait for my hip to heal from some work on that - If it ain't one thing, it's another. But I'm this side of the grass and good to ride when I get well, and there's a bright spot!

[EdMat]

From what I have seen and read about the belts on RT's and F3's, the lifespan is limited more by external factors than actual use of the belt. What gets sprayed on them by us humans or off the road surface plays a part. The biggest offender is solids of all types picked up off the road passing between the belt and the sprockets. Mine at 55,000 miles looks great except for that one little hole completely thru the belt from a rock about 40,000 miles ago.

[bikerbillone]

I am totally amazed at BRPs ability to build the Spyder with parts that just seem to last forever, and then there are seat and rear trunk OEM shocks that are just plain trash.

[ARtraveler]

I replaced two drive belts over seven Spyders and 200,000 miles total. Both belts damaged were my fault. I managed to drive on rocks and rocks became imbedded in the Spyder belt on our 2009. The other, I got stuck in my driveway because I did not wait for the snow to melt. I spun the wheel in the rocks and it actually broke the belt.

No other belts on the other five Spyders showed any wear. Most were traded off at 36 to 40K miles.

[petew]

Thanks for all of your replies . Guess I'll inspect the belt and if it looks good leave it be.

[Mikey]

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Thanks for all of your replies . Guess I'll inspect the belt and if it looks good leave it be.

In the past 12 years I've read many, many posts about using drive belts that had holes in them, and then put 10's of thousands of more miles on them...... My concern with a damaged belt would be if the damage were on the edge of the belt, and even them I would monitor it, and keep pics to compare it to......Mike

[BajaRon]

In the past 12 years I've many, many posts about using drive belts that had holes in them, and then put 10's of thousands of more miles on them...... My concern with a damaged belt would be if the damage were on the edge of the belt, and even them I would monitor it, and keep pics to compare it to......Mike

I agree. Even damaged belts will run fine depending on what the damage is. Missing teeth or broken altogether is about the only 2 things that warrant replacement.

[pegasus1300]

I put 78,000+ miles plus on my 2012. In 2023 the belt decided to shed some teeth, about 6 in a row. I don't know if it was age or milage. I replaced it with a used belt also from a 2012 but with only 25,000 miles on it. It looked good, no cracks, and is running well at this time.

[Peteoz]

I put 78,000+ miles plus on my 2012. In 2013 the belt decided to shed some teeth, about 6 in a row. I don't know if it was age or milage. I replaced it with a used belt also from a 2012 but with only 25,000 miles on it. It looked good, no cracks, and is running well at this time.

Paul, should that have read “In 2023 the belt decided” rather than “2013”?

Pete

[pegasus1300]

Yes it should Pete and thanks for catching that. I have now fixed it.

[BajaRon]

Paul, should that have read “In 2023 the belt decided” rather than “2013”?

Pete

I was going to say... '78,000+ miles in 1 year!'. That's an average of 213+ miles each day! I would get on my Spyder today and ride to Utah just to shake your hand! Thanks Pete! You saved me the trip!

[pegasus1300]

Darn Ron, I was looking forward to that opportunity.

[BajaRon]

Darn Ron, I was looking forward to that opportunity.

That's a trip from Frenchville, Main to San Diego, California once every 2 weeks for a full year.

[VtRider3]

Has anyone had a problem with a frayed edge on their belt? The belt on my 2023 F3-S with about 2500 miles is frayed on the right side. Belt tension and alignment are in spec. The right edge of the belt usually rides about 3-4 mm from the rear pulley flange and sits near the left edge of the front pulley, so I don't see why the right edge would be frayed. I pulled the guards off and verified that nothing was rubbing on the belt. Inspected the full length of the belt and the pulleys, but everything looked fine. Any ideas?

Belt Fray 2.jpg Right edge fray.jpg Right edge fray.jpg

[Peter Aawen]

You might want to very carefully inspect the bike-side edge, top & bottom of the pulleys, both front & rear; the teeth on both pulleys, including the shape of the top & the bottom of the hole between teeth; and the teeth on the belt itself, not just the top edge. I've seen a couple of belts start showing similar fraying when one of the pulley's involved had picked up something and damaged the cogs - there wasn't anything caught in the belt &/or the pulley teeth by the time I got to see one of these, but a very close inspection of the pulley cogs/teeth revealed damage in there to the edge of the pulley that was tearing/fraying the belt every time it passed over that section of pulley!!

One of those belts was on an almost new F3, with the damage to belt looking very similar to that in your pic, and the damage to the pulley mostly right down in the bottom of the gap between a couple of teeth on the rear pulley. Something hard had obviously been jammed in there for a short while, but it tore the bottom of that gap between pulley teeth and either going in or coming out, it ripped a sharp edged sliver of metal up with a gouge below it in the raised side of the pulley that's meant to stop the belt riding off the bike-side edge, and THAT was what was doing the damage to the belt, both to the top edge and the bottom edge of the teeth on the belt just like that on yours! They'd brought it to me to do for that one, so I had tools on hand and I used a die grinder to smooth out all the raised metal bits on the pulley; checked that the belt wasn't torn anywhere else; trimmed the 'hairs' off the belt with a sharp pair of snips; and that Spyder is now nearing 200,000 km on that belt with no hassles or issues ever since! (Just like me, he still does thousands of kms a year on dirt & gravel roads too, without any additional or forgotten belt guards and has only had this one belt damaging occurrence! )

The other one was due to a chunk of quartz being picked up and jammed tightly into the teeth of the front sprocket... It basically cut the belt very nearly in two right down the middle before anyone noticed anything - it was the growing buzzing noise & vibration that gave it away; and it was a right pain prising the chunk of quartz out of the depths between the cogs. This one was half-way across the country in the middle of nowhere, so I only had a small hand-file (or more correctly, a slightly over-sized nailfile on a multi-tool! ) to smooth out the jagged bits on the pulley & a multi-tool knife to cut off the longer of the frayed 'hairs' on the belt before letting him ride on. Still, got the job done, and despite dome discussion about replacing it, I believe that belt is still out there driving its Spyder some years and quite a few kms down track (with a spare coiled up inside the frunk lid!) Last time I saw it was a few months ago, and while the belt still looked awful, it was no worse than it had been on the day the damage happened, and it was still doing the job!!

There's no denying that they're bloody tough belts!

[flash2002]

Talking about belts, is there a product that could be put on the belt to make it last longer ?

[Mikey]

Has anyone had a problem with a frayed edge on their belt? The belt on my 2023 F3-S with about 2500 miles is frayed on the right side. Belt tension and alignment are in spec. The right edge of the belt usually rides about 3-4 mm from the rear pulley flange and sits near the left edge of the front pulley, so I don't see why the right edge would be frayed. I pulled the guards off and verified that nothing was rubbing on the belt. Inspected the full length of the belt and the pulleys, but everything looked fine. Any ideas?

Belt Fray 2.jpg Right edge fray.jpg Right edge fray.jpg

When you took that picture, was it in your garage and by any chance did you back into that spot where you parked? The reason I ask that question is, as you should know, your belt drifts back and forth a lot as you drive, and then when you back up it drifts a lot more and will give you a faulty reading of how your belt really is adjusted. When you really want to check for adjustment is when you come straight into like a parking spot and stop, look down then, and see where it's riding. Your belt has been hitting or riding on something to get that kind of rub. When I adjust my belt, I like to try to get it a little closer to the right than you have it. Have you had any pulley work done on your bike?

Talking about belts, is there a product that could be put on the belt to make it last longer ?

It really doesn't need anything put on it, there was a time when people were having a squeaking problem and BRP was having them put a dab of grease on the inside, but if you don't have a problem with that leave, it alone!! Don't over think an issue that's not there!

[BajaRon]

I agree with Peter. Check your pulleys. A small rock lodged between teeth will, over a rather short time, damage the entire length of the belt. The front pulley will do it more quickly than the rear.

[Steve W.]

Thanks for all of your replies . Guess I'll inspect the belt and if it looks good leave it be.

If it's not broken, don't fix it.

.