Belt Up

[Flip]

Well this might be of interest to those of us that own older bikes and do our own servicing.

With all the chat recently about timing belt life, service intervals and increased cost since the VAG takeover. In particular the two year interval of the older bikes which is now five years on the new 2v model.

So I spoke with Stuart Sonley from Exact UK about the subject and how the California Cycleworks belts are now cheaper than the genuine items and this is what he had to say:

Hi Phil,

The emotive subject of Belt Life!

CCW state their belts mirror OEM, so simply if it's a 2 year life and x miles or a 5 year life and x miles the official line is we would mirror that (with the knowledge that our belts are generally a higher specification than OEM).

Chris at CCW openly admits they are fine for longer and I would always run for 3 years as I do low mileage on my Ducati's. It is however very much a personal decision.

Say you run 1000 bikes for 10 years and 15 belts broke, and as a comparison you ran 1000 bikes for 5 years and 4 belts broke - reducing to 2 years takes out the probability of any breaking (other than due to outside influences like engine failure or idler bearing failure of course) this is effectively what Ducati have done. This is why it has to be a personal decision to run over the Ducati specified recommendations.

CCW Exact Fit belts are now coming up 9 years of history and are widely regarded as the market leader in the USA with main dealers even stocking them! Also in that time we have no known belt failures due to the belts construction.

So, my view is that I am happy to run for 3 years, but I am not sure i would do so with OEM belts as I have reports from some official sources that the odd one still breaks (very small percentage of course).

Anyway - hope that helps! For PayPal friends and family payment I can offer you 10% discount - so times our Ebay prices by 0.9

Payment would need to be via PayPal Friends and Family for the discount but postage is included and it is always 1st Class Signed / Insured so no risk to the purchaser.

Any further questions let me know.

I'll send you a promo leaflet tonight when I am back in the office...

Regards,

Stu

If you want to clarify anything direct email here:
sales@exactuk.com

Their website for fitments and prices (before discount):
www.exactuk.com

Or simply search eBay for their listings.



So there we have it Peeps, a nice 10% discount (when sending money through PayPal Friends and Family) from the already cheaper than Ducati, Exactfit if you want to go that route.
The discount also applies to their combination sets which are supplied with SKF bearings.

Out of interest has anyone here ever heard of belts breaking or the bearings giving up causing a failure?

Personally, I have only ever heard of two 4v bikes belts breaking and they were both on race bikes while they were being warmed up.

Then one 2v bike (which apparently had been standing a long time) had either a fixed or tensioner bearing seized up causing the belt to shred but was caught before catastrophe struck.

[buzzbomb]

Nice one Phil...

That's a brilliant piece of info....

[jerry]

the only broken belt is saw was on a 996 due to tensioning bearing faliure which took out the valves
have seen some worn frayed ones on 4v motors but never on a 2 valver yet , i leave them up to 3 years now on my old 2 valve models or 8000 miles

[Darren69]

From what I've seen its usually the tensioner bearing failure that knackers them. Have seen both 2v and 4v the same.

[Wasta]

Good deal, except i bought my belts two weeks ago...

I'll be running mine for three years.

[Dukedesmo]

Up until now I've used Ducati belts but the last couple of purchases have made my eyes water so I'll be using Exactfit going forwards.

I'm happy to pay good money for quality stuff but don't like being fleeced. I'd like to think that Ducati might be more reasonable with parts for older machinery, especially in the light of decent competition but corporate greed knows no limits I'm afraid.

[Flip]

Well theeeeeey’re here!!

Ordered from Stuart late Thursday night via PayPal, sent out Friday and arrived this morning by signed for post.

All packaged as you’d expect and the belts themselves are marked with Exactfit’s TB900 part number and cross referenced to Ducati part number 73710081A.

I ordered the set with tensioner bearings and as I’m also fitting a new clutch the pressure plate bearing as well- £84.10 all in

[MrsC_772]

Originally Posted by Flip

Out of interest has anyone here ever heard of belts breaking or the bearings giving up causing a failure?

I've twice had the bearings give up on Primus (my original 696), once at around 30,000 miles and again around 30,000 miles later.

In both cases the failure was discovered as part of a routine service. The belts didn't break, and there wasn't any collateral damage, but I count myself lucky.

First time round as the guys from Snells took the belt covers off, ball bearings fell out and rolled across the garage floor ...

[Flip]

Originally Posted by MrsC_772

I've twice had the bearings give up on Primus (my original 696), once at around 30,000 miles and again around 30,000 miles later.

In both cases the failure was discovered as part of a routine service. The belts didn't break, and there wasn't any collateral damage, but I count myself lucky.

First time round as the guys from Snells took the belt covers off, ball bearings fell out and rolled across the garage floor ...

That either sounds very lucky or unlucky depending on your outlook but at least it was caught (just) in time. 30,000 miles seems to be the time most people change them though.
Do you know if it was the tensioner bearings or the fixed ones that gave?

I ask because Ducati have changed the tensioner bearings from double races put on the shaft to a wider single type the same as the fixed bearing and I wonder if there’s any connection.