Morning fellas (at least it is on this side of the pond!) it is about 0700 here, and at about 1650 I am gonna put in a new drive belt. The PDF workshop manual from Paul Milner's site is a trifle vague, so what about it? Any useful advice? I have no "special" tools.( Oh yeah, and the dealer is worse than useless!)

I don't know what caused the belt to break, but my clutch is is adjusted pretty tight, and putting her into first when completely cold, is clunky, and I can feel her wanting to move forward. That is exactly what I did, and as I "klunked" her into gear, the belt snapped. Upon examination, I see some sort of squashing trauma to the top of the belt, and it has parted there.

There are two possible ways that I could have taken a hit on the belt:
1) I hit a dog and took a tumble a couple of weeks ago - broken big toe on my good leg and lots of bruising. Dog was fine, and the bike took scratches to the Leatherlykes and Big Willys (boo hoo), but otherwise OK.
2) Straight after the dog incident I put on new tyres (yes Metz WWWs!) and maybe the tyre guy had some problem with the belt (Roadies, and even belt drives per se, are pretty rare in Cape Town) and did something silly to it.

Any advice gratefully received,
Cheers,
Pegleg

Glad you're ok, sorry about the bike. I personally don't have any experience changing the belt, and if you don't get advice soon here, stick your head in over at RSR forum. And dont take this wrong, please, but I doubt anybody though you broke any toes on your fake leg! I for one am still glad to here you ride with such an obsticle to overcome. Think I would do the same.BB

Sounds like perhaps your belt was either too tight, or rear wheel was out of alignment....or perhaps even both factors. I'm almost going to lean towards both. My analogy is that your back wheel was out of alignment therefore causing the lip on your rear pulley to act like a shredder...and then with the added tension on your belt (being too tight), just caused it to snap finally. But I could be wrong. YOu may have even picked up some sharp object from your tumble. If I were you, when you end up taking your back tire off , check to see if there are any sharp burrs anywhere on your pulleys (front and back). YOu just never know. At least if you inspect them yourself, you will know that it has been inspected. Good luck man, and i"m glad to see that you are alright. Keep 'er cruisin!!

No special tools required. Just the regular metric sockets. If you don't have a socket large enough for the rear axle bolt you can use an adustable wrench (spanner ?).

You will need a lift to get the bike up. Lossen the axle adjusters. Remove rear brake stay bolt. Remove axle nut. Jack bike up just enough to get the pressure off the axle and remove the axle. Raise bike up and pull back the tire enough to get belt in.

You will also need to remove the front pulley cover to get the belt over the front pulley.

When assembling make sure not too tighten the rear axle nut to spec; it only needs about 60-70 lbs. I just tighten it with a wrench until I 'think' it's tight enough. :0

The clutch will always grab when the bike is cold. When you first start it up, pull the lever in 3-4 times. That will lubricate the plates and you won't get the big jerk.

Doc