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[BamBam]

As I was riding home from work yesterday as part of my daily commute, I gave my DSR a little burst of throttle and heard the telltale snap and immediate rev of the motor.  I knew right away that I had broken the drive belt.  Luckily, it was a nice day in Cincinnati and it was on a side street near where I work.  I had my daughter pick me up and then came back with my pickup truck to fetch it.  I was only about 6 miles from home.  It could have been a lot worse.

I bought my DSR new and only have around 3,900 miles on it.  I take really good care of the belt.  I keep it adjusted properly, keep it centered on the rear sprocket, and spray the belt and sprockets every couple of weeks with dry silicone.  My riding is 100% asphalt so this sure seems like a premature failure to me.

I have a call into my Zero dealer and they are checking to see if Zero will cover it under warranty.  I’m only looking for Zero to provide a new belt.  I will take care of installing it.

If I’m only going to get around 4K miles out of the drive belt then I can see a chain conversion in the future.  I don't have a lot of confidence in the belt right now.  The small sprocket in the front can't be that good for it.  Design issue?

I'll follow up with what Zero says when I hear back from them.

[gborgan]

As I was riding home from work yesterday as part of my daily commute, I gave my DSR a little burst of throttle and heard the telltale snap and immediate rev of the motor.  I knew right away that I had broken the drive belt.  Luckily, it was a nice day in Cincinnati and it was on a side street near where I work.  I had my daughter pick me up and then came back with my pickup truck to fetch it.  I was only about 6 miles from home.  It could have been a lot worse.

I bought my DSR new and only have around 3,900 miles on it.  I take really good care of the belt.  I keep it adjusted properly, keep it centered on the rear sprocket, and spray the belt and sprockets every couple of weeks with dry silicone.  My riding is 100% asphalt so this sure seems like a premature failure to me.

I have a call into my Zero dealer and they are checking to see if Zero will cover it under warranty.  I’m only looking for Zero to provide a new belt.  I will take care of installing it.

If I’m only going to get around 4K miles out of the drive belt then I can see a chain conversion in the future.  I don't have a lot of confidence in the belt right now.  The small sprocket in the front can't be that good for it.  Design issue?

I'll follow up with what Zero says when I hear back from them.

I wonder if you are maintaining it “too good.”  I rode my ‘15 SR 12,000 miles over three years and never touched the belt myself. Changed the tires at the Zero dealer at just under 10,000.  That was the only time the rear axle was moved. If you’re riding on the street, why all the work? The whole point of a belt is to be mostly free of maintenance. “If it ain’t broke...” maybe you had a defective belt .


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[flattetyre]

Generally they're not supposed to be in the middle of the rear sprocket more toward the outside. You can measure from the swingarm pivots to the rear axle to get a really good alignment. The little hash marks are worthless. If the belt is not on totally square you will not be using the full cross section for tension and it can break a lot more easily.

Also how many times did you adjust it and how do you have to touch that thing more than once? Unless your axle nut is coming loose or you have some crazy bearing / bushing wear it should pretty much stay put.

Oh and how did you determine the tension is right?

[BamBam]

No, I actually didn't have to adjust it much at all.  What I was trying to imply is that the belt was always maintained according to specs and best practices.  Belt kept about 1mm from outside edge/lip of rear sprocket (so not quite centered) and tensioned using the Gates tension gauge per unofficial manual.  I always kept the belt at the lower end of the tension spec.

No reason that I can think of why the belt should have failed this soon.  I'm thinking that either the belt was defective or it was mishandled prior to being installed at the factory.  I've read that these carbon reinforced belts need to be handled with care.

Geez, tough crowd.

[Moto7575]

The belt is really unexpensive. I had lots of failure (3 in a row), which I thought at that were related to dealer's tension adjustement. But they might have defective batches...

[Curt]

My FX belt is around 8000 mi and visually looks fine. I abuse it regularly by hopping speed bumps, etc. Tension is 25-30 kg.

I think yours broke because you lubricated it. Why would you do that? Chains are lubricated because they have joints of metal sliding on metal.

Lubrication would encourage the belt to skip teeth. The belt would undergo huge jolts of tension whenever that happens. And you don't want the belt sliding around. Sliding is wear; more friction is less wear.

[gborgan]

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[E-Luke]

I’m at 8000 miles, 2016 DSR, and had my 4th belt snap last week...
One time my fault (jumping off curb), but the rest just normal riding with 70-90% acceleration. I don’t want to go a chain, but I want to be able to ride the thing without fear of not getting home every time I punch it!!!

[gborgan]

No, I actually didn't have to adjust it much at all.  What I was trying to imply is that the belt was always maintained according to specs and best practices.  Belt kept about 1mm from outside edge/lip of rear sprocket (so not quite centered) and tensioned using the Gates tension gauge per unofficial manual.  I always kept the belt at the lower end of the tension spec.

No reason that I can think of why the belt should have failed this soon.  I'm thinking that either the belt was defective or it was mishandled prior to being installed at the factory.  I've read that these carbon reinforced belts need to be handled with care.

Geez, tough crowd.

Oh, not a tough crowd at all. (Well, except for one guy who knows who he is...and whose advice I took...I got out).

These belts should be the least of your potential worries considering all the issues some of us have had with the electronics.  I agree about lubrication. Dry lube or not, one doesn’t lube a belt. 

Everyone here usually wants to help if they bother to post at all.

I sold my ‘15 SR due to ongoing electronics issues unresolved after the first “firmware” update over a year prior.   I never even looked at the belt in 12,000 miles.

Remember “Elegant Simplicity” is the baseline notion with these things. For the most part that means, ride it and don’t worry about it until it quits.[emoji846]

Edited: just occurred to me...when did the wider belt come out?  These failures seem to be 2016+.   My 2015 was the narrow one.  Are the bigger belts proving to be failure prone? Certainly was not the intent.

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[Richard230]

I am not sure that it is a good idea to lubricate the belt with anything.  Some chemicals, even silicone, might affect the belt's durability.   

[mrwilsn]

Wide belt introduced in MY2017.

I can say from experience that even the wide belt can break if a BB sized rock gets between the belt and one of the sprockets....which can happen even if you only ride on paved roads.

The design flaw is not having a good guard to protect the belt from debris.

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[Jarrett]

That's a bummer to hear.  I wonder if the higher torque models suffer from this more frequently.

[NEW2elec]

Coming up on 29k miles on the 13 DS same old belt good as new.
I agree don't put anything on it.  I don't even get mine wet if I can help it.
I saw one of NEW ZEROLAND's YT videos and when the guy's belt snapped and they pulled over his axial nut was finger loose.
I don't know if that was the case or not for anyone else's breaks but everybody should check that nut with a torque wrench every so often.
It's 75 lb ft of torque which is some effort.

[Moto7575]

What dry silicon did you use ? I wanted to reduce the noise but did not find a petroleum free silicon so i used i product made for belt dressing. It might be that your product ate the belt...

[BamBam]

I'm thinking you guys may be onto something with the silicone spray so I'm going to stop using that on the new belt.  However, if you want to spray a little silicone on the front clog to reduce the groan noise make sure you use a product that does not contain any petroleum distillates.  Most silicone sprays contain petroleum distillates so be aware of that and use caution and read the label.

I'll post some pics of my belt failure tonight when I get home from work.  Mine was a clean break.  Not ragged like in some of the other photos.