Hey everyone!
I just found out about this thread - - lots of great questions and thoughts in here!
I hope you don't mind if I reply with some of my thoughts and experience.
We are buying the belts from a US Company with decades of experience in the automotive and industrial belt industry ( V-belts and timing belts ). The president of their corporation has been to our facility 3 times over the past couple years. Del's experience with timing belts is much more than mine is with Ducatis and his depth of knowledge is incredible. Bringing our ExactFit belts to market has been quite the journey! He is overseeing their manufacture at the world's largest belt manufacturing facility, which is in China. They have the capacity to make 80,000 timing belts per day as well as a staggering 800,000 V-belts per day.
Oh yeah isn't there a shelf life for belts anyhow? I mean they normally have a life of 2yrs or 10000km. They have a manufacturing date on them so I would assume it would be bad to have them hanging around for too long?
ok so you have them sitting on a shelf in the shed, but wouldnt environmental conditions also come in to effect? I mean you would put them in a cupboard in the dark and cooler conditions. Exposure to light and heat would effect the life? Wouldnt the rubber age? Or would that be such a minor variance that you could buy them now and still be confident using them 2 or more years down the track?
If belts are stored in a dry place without exposure to sunlight, they have an infinite shelf life. Every year, Del will store away belts (in plastic) so that he can test and re-test them every following year. He said that after doing this for the last 9 years, the belts will eventually “cure” and he is quite pleased with their construction. The fibers in belts absorb water, but on a very small scale. This will cause the belts to become longer.
I thought the biggest issue (in terms of life expectancy) was having them held in tension as opposed to sitting on a shelf. Even worse if they sit tensioned without moving for long periods of time.
There have been some long conversations about this. The belts are “supposed” to lose their tight spots within 30 seconds. The belts do not (or are not supposed to) be affected by sitting in an engine with tension, not running.
you can also get the same belts from brad black
http://www.bikeboy.org/products.html depending on what the exchange rate is at the time as stuff i have bought in the last couple of weeks has been between 95 and 98 and what the shipping is , there prob wont be much in it
That is my plan, actually. I want the belts to help support local dealers. My aim is that the belts are the same price no matter how or where purchased.
I had some of these put on at my last service just before MotoGP Phillip Island trip. I'm sure my mechanic got them from Brad Black. Mechanic has no concerns at all.
My belts were changed after 2yrs and 10K and according to my mechanic, could have stayed on their for a lot more. I think the 20K / 2yr rule is overkill but keeps us buying belts out of fear of what might happen if we don't.
I had a car with these type of cambelts once. Manual said to change them at 100K.
We have a Multistrada customer who rides all the time, so we got back his first set of belts and sent them in to our man...
from Del Stork on Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 2:11 PM
subject RE: Order : 2--71; belt question
Hi Chris,
The TB1100 belts with 12891 miles show almost no wear. The total “change in length” of the belts was .006” to .010” on the rear cylinder and .002” to .006” on the front cylinder. ( I do not have the exact length of the two belts as shipped, just the range of shortest to longest on that shipment.)
Change in length as measured in pulleys can occur from both 1. wear and 2. cord “stretch” over time. The used belts had worn so little they still were good enough to ship as “new”. This is fantastic field test results.
Let me know what else you need,
Del Stork
. . . and this customer says his next set is going 20,000 miles.
This is the biggest topic with our belts:I think the 20K / 2yr rule is overkill but keeps us buying belts out of fear of what might happen if we don't.
I absolutely agree. I have NO reason, cause, belief, factual idea, or clue why the belts should be changed with such an aggressive interval.
But. . . What if? Timing belts are unbelieveably strong. Much much stronger than they need to be to run our cams. BUT until I can understand more about how and why they fail, I am recommending factory maintenance intervals. I believe that everyone agrees 2 yr / 12k miles to be very safe.
Thanks for reading all this. We very much appreciate everyones' support,
Chris
