The dreaded red dust of death!

[blacklightning]

Well, after 4 years and 24k miles I finally will be taking my 2016 F3T in for a warranty issue. Someone was posting about dust on their front pulley on Facebook. So I decided to give mine a check on yesterday. Typically I check mine every 3k miles or before doing a ride that consist of over 200 miles in one day. My last check was in October, just before the Spyder Adventures Rally in Maggie Valley (I usually put about 1500 miles on the bike that week). It didn't look bad, but thought I saw a little dust, but assumed it was just regular dust. Well yesterday it was confirmed that it is the red dust of death on my front pulley. I called up my local shop and they can't get to it until June 15. They said it might be safe to ride, but they didn't recommend it. He said because I still have some extended warranty left, the worst case would be if it messed up the shaft to the transmission. It would still be covered, but getting the parts might take a long time. Thankful I have the BMW now, so I can still do some wind therapy.

 

[Jetfixer]

I understand that you are under warranty, and hopefully there's no shaft damage. We have a 2020 RTL and a 2021 F3L. Both were providing us with the loud whistling noise at certain speeds, so I decided to switch both bikes front pulleys out to the new white ones. If you are at all handy with some basic tools, you can switch your front pulley out in less than 15 minutes. Perhaps you could get the dealer to provide you with a white pulley and do it yourself to save your riding time. (I think you would have to have ridden a long time with a damaged pulley to do shaft damage) If that sounds interesting to you and your dealer will give you the new pulley, all you have to do is remove the 3 screws on the plastic panel below the drivers seat. The pulley will be right in front of you. Using a socket, loosen the bolt most of the way, then jack the rear wheel off the ground, turn off the parking brake, and while turning the rear wheel by hand, work the belt off the rear pulley. It's not hard to do at all. Then remove the pulley bolt and pulley. Clean the shaft and inspect it. Apply some Moly Paste to the new pulley and put it on. Run the new bolt on most of the way. Work the belt back on the reverse of the way you took it off, set the parking brake, lower the rear wheel to the ground, torque the pulley bolt, and reinstall the plastic panel. Go riding!