When to renew timing belts?

[OT]

Also should factor-in environmental conditions....

My '04 1000DS (built in Sept 2003, so belts are nearing 6 years old now) with 14,000 miles sits out the winter in the garage (never goes below freezing)....pulled the covers a week ago and the belt's rubber is in buttery-new condition.  Bikes running with no covers in all kinds of weather might look different.

The belts you buy today weren't made yesterday....they could have been made years ago and have just sat on the shelf or in a box under temperature conditions harsher than where you store your bike....so I'm not convinced that time-on-the bike means much...a good look at their overall condition is probably the best first step.

FWIW - you may need to disconnect the oil cooler from the valve cover and the wires/drains alongside the covers to make it easier to get the covers off/on.  There's a good video on how-to replace belts on the Ca-Cycleworks website..

[bigiain]

The belts you buy today weren't made yesterday....they could have been made years ago and have just sat on the shelf or in a box under temperature conditions harsher than where you store your bike....so I'm not convinced that time-on-the bike means much...

I think the usual reasoning is that once fitted on the bike, the belts are under tension and wrapped around what would be considered in the car world _very_ small pulleys, which puts them under considerably more stress than a set of belts sitting on a shelf.

Whether it's actually relevant or not I've never needed to decide for myself - I hit the mileage limits on belts _well_ before the 2 year time limit.

big