I went into a bike shop a while ago, out the back, and there was a bike there with 2 chains on it, side by side, WTF. It looked tuff and i asked the mechanic what was the story, he said that the bloke had put it on himself after snapping a single chain all the time. The mechanic was under the impression that something wasn't right with the aligning of the bike gear rather than the power of the bike. It did look mega tuff though.

I would need to be convinced there was no other choice to go back to a chain after the clean easy maintenance of a belt.

Somewhere well north of a VROD would be my guess.

cheers
Surly

chains are messy,stretch quickly, need adjusting more often than a belt,but if your going to lift the front wheel off the ground id go for a chain , A group of us were heading back to victoria in 05 cutting back across the flinders ranges when a heritage belt broke
we phoned Adelaide but it had to be ordered in ,in fact all the shops the heritage owner called had none in stock, in 06 we were coming back from NSW the belt went on an 04 buel , could not get one any were, had to be ordered, l had a 1988 heritage at the time thought id get a spare belt in Elizibeth street when l got back, guess what? had to be ordered not in stock, guess theres to many models out for the shops to keep a few of everything.. Suming up,,, a belt can break at the worst time .....

You dont know what your missing Kiwidave, I've never owned a belt drive before the Harley and now the Z1000 gives me the shits having to adjust it and clean it all the time, if I could put a belt on it I would. But then, some folk still prefer points. LOL.

Fuck why would ya wanna go backwards?????
I hated the nights with the molten duckhams and the black sticky shit everwhere.
Give me a belt drive anyday.

I've got a evo trike that I'm in the throws of changing from belt to chain due to it slipping when 3 up ( rider and 2 on the back bench seat) and going up a steep incline such as a driveway and having to put some power down. Its eaten 2 belts in the last 6 months but mainly due to rocks from road works being thrown up onto the belt and damaging it. It is a pain to change the belt as well as the rear end has to be completely disassembled to fit the new belt. This definately doesn't make the HP numbers your talking about here but it does have a lot of traction with 2 radial T/a's on the back end. After talking with a harley mechanic that drags a V-rod with chain drive and hasn't had a chain fail in 4 years we decided that changing to a chain drive may solve my problems and cause less grief.

regards Russ

Have seen Belts take a lot at the Drags, i think Mark Wacker still had a belt on his 99 FXDX twin Cam and he was runing high 10,s at the track.

if your going to chain, don't get cheap buy the best, and there are cheap counter sprokets, and more expencive made in USA counter sprokets, the counter sproket is the hard one to change, also its the one wear's more. i got a Made in USA counter sproket and a cheap steel tiwain rear sproket, and the best chain i could find it was expencive but i converted in 2003 as i was riding up Willowbank QLD to race and riding home to sydney one day each way and racing for two days. did not want to risk breaking a belt while away. ( like they say, not much fun when you see the black snake in your rear view mirror ).

the Nitro Harleys some up to or over 190cubic inch now, use a belt primary and a double link chain the chains they use are over $1,500 just for the chain. the destroyers have a nice billit rear chain sproket, would be good as light and probably true. .

up to you mate.

 cheers

ps, much easier to change rear wheel when it has a chain than a belt, the biggest killer of belts is a cold mix road out in the bush that just had a load of blue metal dropped over it, they cut a belt up in no time if belt unprotected.

It's not a Big HP Engine that Brakes Belts. it's Traction. Once you have a bigger that 250 Tyre ,you should make the Bike Chain Drive . And Dave is on the money. With the New Grease less Chains that are on the Market, there is no mess

high power.... plus..... high traction.... equals......high load
traction and power are merely factors, whereas load is the determining factor
the biggest killer of belts, as stated earlier..... is lack of tension
the next biggest killer would most likely be poor protection from the environment
a loose belt has reduced protection against sudden peak load
you can put plenty of constant load on a well adjusted belt, and it will survive well
but spin the tyre, and then suddenly get grip, with the belt slack..... and that sudden load could snap it easily, irrespective of tyre size

DR