Took advantage of the great weather today and when out with the the wife for a we ride-out, her on the XB and me on the Hyper. A couple of hours into Fife an XB belt appeared in the road in front of me and the wife was coasting to a stop on a mega busy road, which was handy.

Anyway, after the recovery to Edinburgh HDB I was chatting to a couple of the staff who had just been to a UK dealers meeting. Turns out they had been chatting about Buell sites and the info on them, good and bad. One of the things that was mentioned (Apparently) is that fitting a FS tensioner can cause the belt to fail, you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear that. I have no idea about spannering and had one fitted after the numerous post recommending them, so... thoughts from those that know better than me?

I've taken some pictures of the belt for general perusal, bear in mind it sat in the middle of a busy road for a while... Images to follow.......

_________________
Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away

In the garage -

2001 X1
KTM390 Duke
Ducati 950 Monster +
CCM Spitfire Scrambler

Interesting was going to fit mine 2moro!

Good to hear that the rider coasted to a stop even in heavy traffic as you know it could have been alot worse .

I also got an FS tensioner but was told not to fit by dealer as it could make my belt worse as it is fraying , but now they say go ahead put it on as nothing wrong with your bike/belt see viewtopic.php?f=7&t=658 , think you will find they will try and blame failures on the tensioner FFS , Wont be fitting it and the bike will not be moving till this is sorted .

They are shit, I will buy any surplus ones for 20 pounds...

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08 Specialized Langster

Really how generous are you

Tis a lode of bollocks!
Glad your Mrs is safe!

N.

Buell don't sell tensioners, just the fixed jockey wheels, and recommending tensioners would be saying that there's a problem with the original design.

Why would you even ask the dealer about that, it's not like most would give impartial advice.



(Adam... is that your phone ringing again?)

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Good in straight lines
2001 X1 "The Tart's Handbag"
2001 FZS1000 "The Fridge"

Link to photos of broken belt:

http://s557.photobucket.com/albums/ss14 ... XB%20Belt/

_________________
Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away

In the garage -

2001 X1
KTM390 Duke
Ducati 950 Monster +
CCM Spitfire Scrambler

hmm looks to be a lot of damage to that belt apart from the break.........both the belts i've had go have looked in good condition apart from the actual break. Is there something on the pulleys that may be causing damage?

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2001 X1 2009 1125CR 2006 Uly X3 2010 Uly a fully Maz'd S1 and a 1991 RS1200 Westwind.

I don't think there is anything damaging the belt on the pulleys etc but I'm not exactly good at the spannering thing - I check the belt etc regularly to make sure there is nothing obviously damaged. There is probably a lot of extra damage as it laid in the road for about 20 minutes before I managed to retrieve it.

_________________
Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away

In the garage -

2001 X1
KTM390 Duke
Ducati 950 Monster +
CCM Spitfire Scrambler

Rear wheel bearings were changed 2k ago and the bearings on the tensioner were also changed. I'm not sure what the front pulley bearing is?

_________________
Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away

In the garage -

2001 X1
KTM390 Duke
Ducati 950 Monster +
CCM Spitfire Scrambler

So was this dealer gossip based on any fact, or were they having to defend the inadequacies of the original set up? (which does, in fact, make the best of a bad job) Did you ask if any qualified engineers with exrtensive knowlege of drive belts had offered any evidence for this, or was it just Showroom experts spouting off One view would be worth listening to, the other would just be shite.

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

My belt broke shortly after fitting an fs tensioner.

The reasons for this, i believe, are as follows.

The original belt had been on for over 15k miles, with the original set up.

I fitted the tensioner, and had never had the wheel out before trying the procedure.

I may have twisted the belt a little fitting the tensioner.....

The rear suspension was on full travel, and there seemed to be no road below the rear tyre.

All in all, the fs tensioner has been on now for 10k miles. Each to there own. If you dont want to fit it then don't. I still believe that gear changes are smoother and easier with the tensioner fitted...

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The future is bright, the future is orange... Well, black, but still orange...

To be honest I didn't get into it - I pretty much accept that no matter what one 'expert' says another will say the opposite. You pay your money and take your chance. Hopefully it'll get fixed and we'll keep it going for another 2-3k, and with a bit of luck it'll be down to Maz for a 15k. Thats if he's still working on the XB type junk

_________________
Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away

In the garage -

2001 X1
KTM390 Duke
Ducati 950 Monster +
CCM Spitfire Scrambler

Just curious, has anyone done any research and collected the attrition rates of belts failing on standard bikes to those with the fs tensioner? If not perhaps this forum could be used and a useful set of figues obtained as a fault diagnosis tool.

Anyone up for that?