Cheap drive belts

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Dwainpipe
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 3:49 pm
Current Ride: AN400X

Cheap drive belts

Post by Dwainpipe »

My experience with a cheap drive belt .... Don't do it!, having read others experience with cheap drive belts mostly good but a few bad I decided to take the plunge and have a go with one. well initial impressions were ok it looked the same in profile and width/length and seemed to come from a decent source, Taiwan if i remember right the only difference was it wasn't ribbed on the out side like the oe/Malossi etc belts so I went ahead and fitted it along with a set of Dr Pulley sliders. On the first test run it didn't seem quite right as it bogged down when using full throttle from a dead stop but I thought it must be something to do with the sliders so I put it down to that. In all other respects it seemed ok although it did seem to rev a little higher lower down and only seemed to settle down if the throttle was only lightly opened but again i put that down to the new sliders doing their job and keeping it in a lower gear range for longer, there were no strange noises or obvious belt slipping so I left everything as it was and continued to enjoy my burg as normal. Two thousand miles later things changed however, the first sign was a slight flat spot at about 60mph which I suspected to be carb related and decided to give it a clean out at the next opportunity however I never got chance!. One morning a few days later when only 1/2 mile from work with no warning it broke leaving me very hot and bothered by the time I arrived at work! then a trip on the breakdown truck back home. On stripping the scoot down the belt had indeed broken and wrapped itself in the clutch. I decided after this experience to buy a better quality belt and after looking round at the alternatives decided on a Malossi as it was better priced than oe and cheaper than a Gates. What a revelation! the flat spot low down gone even better than with the oe belt and smooth liner drive right through the rev range. that's the last time I ever skimp on cheap parts and won't be the last time I use Malossi parts.
Redbull may give you wings but Bovril gives me horns!

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