Snap, crackle, pop

[wally]

Left for adventure riding weekend with a buddy. Left at about 4pm last night, got early start this morning.

We had just filled up, had quick coffee and hit the dirt road. About 10km in I lost gears.

First thought was gearbox had gone...

Then I saw my buddy riding up with drive belt in hand!

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/Bikes/Road%20trips/60C3C8F4-26CA-4E33-9CF0-9AF9C3C1BDAA_zpstqkptpkz.jpg
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/Bikes/Road%20trips/7825A30C-4A8E-4451-83DD-88053A7EA01E_zpsnm5ck2vz.jpg
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/Bikes/Road%20trips/B85E85C3-1045-485C-B3D4-B1AF3155E172_zpsoyvezlvr.jpg


Had to fly home tonight. Bike is 500km away at small HD dealership. They were great! Bike is coming down on Monday. So much for a great riding weekend! No belts in South Africa either...

[rchuff]

That really sucks Wally better days are coming. So they say. :)

[cjanderson_90]

I like to see that K60 on there. I think that's what im going with soon here. How is the traction on it? Im hoping someone that has tried a TKC80 has also tried the K60 and can compare them.

[Chicknstripn]

Dam man! I would have shipped you mine express mail to keep your trip alive!
Hard lesson learned; carry a spare!
BTW how many miles did you have on that belt?
Just noticed you said riding weekend. Its the thought that counts right?

[wally]

Thanx guys! Thanx for the offer Chickn!

The belt had about 43 000km on.
I always checked for visible cracks on the outside, but didn't notice the inner tooth sections so well!

We were planning some proper riding -2 long days of off-road in Baviaanskloof (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baviaanskloof_Mega_Reserve).

I bought the Heidenau for a few reasons CJ...
Tyre choice is limited in South Africa - specially in Uly size.
Wanted something which would give more mileage.
Plus the liquid cooled GS1200 now runs a 170 rear, which is fine for the Uly.

Can't give feedback yet, but holds good on tar and good on small bit of off-road we did. :D

Contemplating whether something like Free Spirits tensioner will work/make a difference for the tension during off-roading?


A few of us will be ordering belts next week. Gonna be a ripper, as our exchange rate is reaaaaaally bad at the moment.
Thanx Zuma...

HD only stocks service parts. This you can pretty much buy at any other bike shop for cheaper.

[wally]

Story goes from bad to worse... Bike transport company notified me today that their vehicle was involved in an accident last night and my bike got some damage on the left. Pannier trashed, mirror, etc.

Unsure of the extent of the damage,but I will go check tomorrow. :upset:

[Chicknstripn]

Oh crap!
Was their some type of insurance involved?
Man, talk about some bad luck!

[wally]

I'm sure they have. They are a well known bike transport business.

My brother's brokerage handles our insurance and he is going to drive the whole thing. It'll be OK. ��

[wally]

Went to look at the bike today and it really is surprising that there isn't more damage!

Looks like clutch perch plus mirror, new heated grips, shifter boot rubber thingy and left pannier.
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/IMG_3493_zpsc1ool8lv.jpg
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/IMG_3496_zpsgyvtdt2x.jpg
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/IMG_3495_zpseamxjhyh.jpg
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/IMG_3497_zpscl1ivuvp.jpg

Driver fell asleep, jack knifed the truck and trailer, as trailer swung around it clipped edge of the road and tipped over - onto the side where my bike was.

[cjanderson_90]

Check your primary cover too! there may be a small crack somewhere. Also check your shift shaft that it didnt get bent slightly as that will annoy you until you replace it

[wally]

Everything check and 100%. :up:

Just want to get her rolling again. :)

[ChiTownEngineer]

Wally - a little advice once you get everything sorted with your bike:

* Order a spare belt (obviously). Once you've put a couple hundred, or even thousand on the odometer, install the spare (new) belt and use the (still pretty new) broken-in belt as your spare. Installing a stiff, brand new belt is a little tough, made tougher if you have to do it on side of the trail/road, so using a broken in belt as a spare makes good sense.
* Install the new belt yourself at your leisure and try to do so with ONLY the tools you have in your tool kit. If your kit is short an allen wrench or you would prefer a better torx, etc. make note of it and when you're done, go buy those items and add them to your kit.
* (Optional) Consider getting a Free Spirit belt tensioner. Some guys swear by them, some guys don't like them, but I'm pretty happy with mine, and if it extends the life of the belt (and bearings) then it's pretty cheap insurance.

Do these (as I did before I went on a nice long off road journey) and you'll not only have all the tools and a broken-in belt to work with, but you'll have the benefit of having done it all before, thus minimizing your down time on the trails or on the side of the road. This is advice I picked up, probably somewhere on this forum, and it's advice I've heeded. Hope this helps down the road.

[Cooter]

Great advise! +1 ^^^^

[wally]

Great advice Chi! Actually in the process of ordering 2 belts.

Would never have thought of stretching one a bit and then swapping.
We did a swap on the side of this trip to see if a HD belt will work –*not that tricky.
I have the Buell toolkit and some extra stuff I ride with.

Tell me, I know they say the FS tensioner is not recommended for the Uly, but even FS themselves couldn't tell why.

Do you reckon it is worth it?

Thanx for the advice!

[ChiTownEngineer]

Tell me, I know they say the FS tensioner is not recommended for the Uly, but even FS themselves couldn't tell why.

Do you reckon it is worth it?

Wally, at GREAT risk of opening a can of worms on the FS tensioner topic, here's my perspective:

The price of the tensioner is about the same as the price of a belt (around here anyway), so if it saves me a single prematurely broken belt then it's worth it (to me). I had the same discussion with the guy at FS about mounting it on the Uly and the response I got was effectively -We didn't design it for that bike, but it may work. My thoughts as to why that is are that FS is a small operation and us Uly folks are probably a pretty small slice of the increasingly small Buell aftermarket pie, so it's probably not worth their time or money to procure a Uly just to see if it works.

The geometry on the Uly is effectively the same as the other XB models with a little more swingarm travel so installation is mostly the same. Mounting the tensioner on the Uly required removal of the rear brake lever, which you don't need to do on the other XBs and was not part of the instructions. That's the only difference i noted. Alignment with the paper-thin shims is going to be the same tedious task. Bear in mind that I have the Jardine exhaust which is shorter than stock so clearance was not an issue for me. It shouldn't be a problem for you either, you just have to pay attention to it during installation.

The way I see it, since belt tension is a function of swingarm position, with the Uly's increased swingarm travel it has increased variability in that department. It makes sense to me to have a tensioner that allows for more flexibility, which the FST does. So I got one. Now, I haven's sat down and cranked out the calcs to determine just how much tension variability there is, but the concept holds water for me so I went with it.

The ONLY concern I had getting one was the pics floating around of a couple units that had failed. The failures seem to be due to a poorly positioned dowel pin. So, I sent one of those pics to FS and their response was that the failure rate is less than 1%, the unit appeared to have been modified placing undue stress on the dowel pin, and they will replace any unit if it fails. While the thought of a failed tensioner on the trail is an unpleasant one, realistically a < 1% failure rate is probably as good or better than any other part on our Ulys (definitely better than the belts).

Now that I've opened the can way up for all the guys that have ridden a million miles on the stock tensioner, I hope I've answered your questions (albeit, in a a rather long-winded way).

[wally]

It makes complete sense, I just thought there might be hassles with extra stresses brought on from off-road riding.

Keeping a content-ish pressure on the belt will be good.

I will consider that in the next few months.

2 belts for now. Hopefully our exchange rate has stabilised by then!
Zuma is not doing us favours...

[wally]

Got my 2 gold necklaces today.

With our crap exchange rate and brilliant customs dept, the 2 drive belts I ordered might just as well have been made out of gold!

Ordered them from St Pauls Harley in MN and their pricing and service was great!
Arrived within 1 week! Quicker than ordering from local HD shop!

Wednesday is public holiday over here, so I will be fitting them.
Plus, insurance paid out the claim, so I can order my other parts.

Happy days!

[wally]

Belt on - along with some choice words!

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/Bikes/CCA432F5-B028-47B9-89F4-4FC8F7E9667B_zps629hbyos.jpg

Adjusted clutch, re-aligned everything that twisted in the accident.

Then I noticed this:
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/Bikes/08B1D8E0-512D-42FD-9F3C-2095B9241866_zpsqadivjto.jpg

Anybody know what size stud goes in there? Thanx!

[Cooter]

I hope it's totally missing.
If it's broken in there you are in for some fun:(

[wally]

I hope it's totally missing.
If it's broken in there you are in for some fun:(

Went to have a proper look and the stud did in fact break off..😩

Never stops!

[Cooter]

Pull off the head pipe, lots of penetrant, lots of heat, try to weld a nut on the end if you can.

[wally]

My friend who owns Scorch exhausts said he can help me, so I will be limping over there tomorrow.

[wally]

So.... I have to remove the f@$king headers! :mad-new:

At least it gives me time to redo them this weekend.

[Cooter]

Pull off the head pipe, lots of penetrant, lots of heat, try to weld a nut on the end if you can.

I hate to repeat myself but...

[wally]

Double whammy today!

Got second hand, but virtually brand new luggage set, including frames, for a few bucks more than the cost of importing a left hand pannier alone!
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/09c0df509626c0da2602becd59fe8f2e_zpsusmezdte.jpg

Rest of the parts on the way.

Plus, my neighbour - who wrote off his Buell two years ago - gave me these unused bags for free!!!
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh219/freshdes/4cba6c4f2766a3ee52e6421eef3d83f4_zpsxpyikcwd.jpg

Super chuffed! Offered to pay, but he refused.

On a side note: spent an hour and a half on Friday removing the headers so the guys can access the broken stud. Wasn't a happy camper!

[Cooter]

That's a great neighbor!! :angel:

[wally]

Indeed! Well, now I need some pics of the mounting straps for the tank bag. Seems they got lost somewhere. So if someone would be kind enough to share, I would be really grateful!