| Shazaam! | 05-Jan-2006 19:39 |
I’ll buy them when GiaCaMoto, Bucci or Gates offers a warranty to cover engine damage caused by their belt failure. Testimonials from one or two owners, or anecdotal info from a reseller isn’t enough for me.
If you want to assume the risk on an out-of-warranty bike for the sake of a hundred dollars be my guest. The financial (and failure) risk is not trivial. Belt failures are still with us, and even the redesign with Kevlar and the more precise belt tension tools, Ducati hasn’t eliminated the problem. If you have a bike in warranty it’s a no-brainer - Ducati won’t pay if you have an aftermarket belt failure.
The main reason is that space limitations on Ducatis require the use of smaller diameter pulleys that cause the belt to flex more than large pulleys used in automobile engines. Further, Ducati uses a small diameter back-side belt-tensioning idler pulley arrangement that causes the belt to flex in the opposite direction on each revolution. This design approach results in an even greater angle of belt flexing requiring the use of a stronger reinforcement fiber to prevent fatigue failure. The original drive belt design often failed before the first replacement interval before Ducati switched to a Kevlar fiber reinforced belt.
Most of us are testing a Ducati belt today. If you use an aftermarket belt, you’ll be doing Bucci’s product testing.
As far as I’m concerned, until Bucci states that its belt meets Ducati’s product specification for tensile and fatigue strength, durability, heat resistance, etc. I’m not buying. Rumors that these lower-cost products are identical is just heresay. | 