[Ducati] 50% Less Maintenance.............

[George Betzhold]

Hey Tom -
In my experience, if a Kevlar belt is not exposed to an extremely toxic
atmosphere, the consequences of just sitting there are negligible. If it
were my bike, I would not be concerned. But then, I do all my own
maintenance and am familiar with the signs of belt wear or deterioration.

IMHO, the reasons you have been given by your service techs are more to
cover their butts (and - call me cynical - sell belts). In fact, their
reasons for changing out the first set (too loose) and the second set (bad
tension pulley) might make me question their competence. Did they apply too
much tension when they replaced the first set thereby causing a pulley
failure? If a Kevlar belt is properly tensioned, it will not stretch or
cause a pulley failure. The classic cause of pulley bearing failure (outside
of FOD inclusion) is over tensioning. Desmo valve trains (as has been
mentioned elsewhere) place very little load on the timing belt system.

You may want to ask your tech some hard questions.

George Betzhold
Scottish Woods Log Cabin Resort
Murphy, North Carolina
828-837-5678 Call for reservations
www.scottishwoods.com
Skype ID - bevelsport



-----Original Message-----
From: ducati-bounces at ducati.net [mailto:ducati-bounces at ducati.net]On
Behalf Of Tom
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 9:16 AM
To: Ducati Owners Group
Subject: Re: [Ducati] 50% Less Maintenance.............


> Tom - When you pull the belts on your '03 SS, what do you see that
> indicates
> this is a timely replacement?

Actually, as the bike has been under warranty, I've taken it in.  Last year,
at 10k km they told me one of the belts was too loose, so they replaced
them, this year one of the tension pulleys was bad and the belts needed to
be replaced (currently waiting for the pulley to arrive).

The ST2 I did at 39k km (I had bought it used with 18k km, and they included
a free 20k km service, at which time they replaced the belts), and will be
due again next month either due to mileage (currently at 57k km, but will be
closer to 60k by then), or by age (two years).  Belts looked fine last time
I replaced them, and when I checked them at 49k.  I used kevlar belts last
time, and have a new set waiting to be installed.

My real question is not about km related change, but time (2 years), as in
the future I will be putting less on each bike than the current 10k km due
to having bought a third Ducati (the 999R).  Until now, 20k km/2 years has
been exactly right, but in the future it will probably be more like 3 years
to achieve the 20k on each bike (assuming equal usage)

Tom



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