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[valnar]

Enough speculation.  Barring a belt redesign, what are our options NOW?  The problem appears to be the rubber on the outside of the belt drying and cracking.  Would occasionally treating the OUTSIDE (NOT the inside) of the belt with Armor All prevent this drying from occurring?  You don't want to put it on the inside because the moisture would allow it to retain dirt and grit that would be ground into the rubber every time the teeth pass over the pulleys.  But on the outside of the belt?  I can't think of any harm there.  What do you all think?  Maybe once a week wet a cloth with Armor All, put the bike up on a track stand and just use that cloth to wipe over the outside of the belt.  I wouldn't recommend spraying it directly onto the belt because that would risk it splashing over on to the teeth.

Thoughts?

Is this a tactic Harley owners do?  Or other bikes with belts?

[princec]

I never even looked at the belt on either of my F800STs. Perhaps the simple solution is just to buy BMW belts and pulleys.

Cas

[JaimeC]

It wasn't ever necessary on any of my other belt-driven bikes.  Remember what I posted earlier.  Tens of thousands of miles on the original belts; never replace a belt ever.  This is the very first time I've ever seen anything like this so I'm just spit-balling.  I really don't want to have to replace the belt every 9K+ miles so I'm looking for ideas.

What the hell... I'm going to try it myself and see what happens...

[Crissa]

It says not to treat the belt with anything other than mild soap.

I wonder if some of these bikes are getting exposed to something unexpected or the belts have faults in them Zero is unaware of.

-Crissa

[JaimeC]

It says not to treat the belt with anything other than mild soap.

I wonder if some of these bikes are getting exposed to something unexpected or the belts have faults in them Zero is unaware of.

-Crissa

Both the OP and I garage our bikes.  From what he said, his bike spends less time in the sun than mine but this deterioration occurred to both of us around the same mileage.  Other than prolonged exposure to sunlight or petrochemicals I don't know what would age the rubber this way.

[Crissa]

Yeah, like spilled brake fluid or some sort of road material... There's lots of weird possibilities.

It's even possible your drive leads you past some source of alkaline or acidic dust or some sort of chemical that's just not otherwise been thought about.

And even tiny things like a change in temperature in manufacture could have created a weak point that didn't show up in testing and some bad belts got out.  It's just hard to know.

-Crissa