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[Richard230]

Revzilla has just published a "Daily Rider" review of the 2025 Zero S (which I have not watched yet). You can see it here:

[Richard230]

At minute 25 the reviewer tried to get stupid with the power and snapped the drive belt, resulting in having to call one of his coworkers to have the Zero hauled in a van to get it back to his office.

[JaimeC]

At minute 25 the reviewer tried to get stupid with the power and snapped the drive belt, resulting in having to call one of his coworkers to have the Zero hauled in a van to get it back to his office.

I thought it was a pretty good review up to that point.  I'm sure the wheelie beforehand didn't help either.

Ride the bike like a mature adult and the belt should last the life of the bike. That's been my experience anyway.

[MVetter]

Or acknowledge that Zero STILL has underspecced belts for the amount of power their motors put out.

[Jepe]

At minute 25 the reviewer tried to get stupid with the power and snapped the drive belt, resulting in having to call one of his coworkers to have the Zero hauled in a van

When I studied at the maritime school to become a naval engineer, one of the teachers always said “people who can use their hands in combination with their brains can achieve a lot”. Didn’t know then that it also would apply at (electric) motorcycles  .

[Grauteufel]

It's still poor engineering, if a device is capable of something, you MUST expect users to use that capability. From there its up to the accountants and lawyers to work out whether that poor engineering is worth exposing thei customers to. In this case it sounds as if the accountants won.

[princec]

I ride my bike entirely normally (SR/F) and I'm on the fourth belt in 20000 miles. It sucks. They are over £200 each. There goes all my fuel savings, not to mention being stranded by the side of the road 3 times.

They've had 6 years to sort it.

I've taken matters into my own hands and gotten a DSR/X belt and pulleys, which I'll fit as soon as the current belt snaps. There's just enough clearance. It's 20% stronger than the SR/F belt so I'm reasonably confident it'll last a whole lot longer unless a stone gets in it... but that's a whole other design flaw in itself.

Cas

[Grauteufel]

Either there’s something good in the design or I’ve just been lucky, but we did a cumulative several hundred kms on dirt roads or loose chip seal with the CE 04. Being so low to the ground I would have thought that should make it a higher risk. I never knew belts were such a sore point

[Grauteufel]

I’ve heard (not experienced) the power ramp up on zeros can be a snatchy, maybe livewire and the others programmed better?

[princec]

They're not snatchy in the slightest. The problem is that the belts just aren't anywhere near strong enough.

TBH the design needs 3 things:
1. A wider belt
2. A close-fitting guard to keep out debris (see: F800ST)
3. A cush drive to protect against shock loads

[JaimeC]

They're not snatchy in the slightest. The problem is that the belts just aren't anywhere near strong enough.

TBH the design needs 3 things:
1. A wider belt
2. A close-fitting guard to keep out debris (see: F800ST)
3. A cush drive to protect against shock loads

A cush drive makes sense with an ICE bike, but an electric??  If your motor is producing those kinds of shocks into your drivetrain you really need to get it checked out.

[princec]

It's not the motor - it's the ground.

[MVetter]

I dunno why people are arguing with you. The belts are under-specced. The Livewire ones don't snap because they're a lot beefier. It's not some hidden secret. Oh, you've had your bike for 6 years and still use the original belt? Great! You don't ride aggressively. Anyone who has pushed these bikes over time has snapped one or more belts.

[Specter]

it's not so much it's slamming instant power onto the belt, like hitting the rev limiter and letting go the clutch, there is a ramp but the belt can't handle the tension, it's too weak.  so shock absorbers, cush drives etc are not going to do much when it's just plain and simple, overloaded.

the belt can handle 4 furlongs per fortnight of toque and you are giving it 9.  It's gonna snap.  The better belt probably cost them 20 dollars more each, so they went with the cost cutting, well most people won't do this... yah ok sparky.

what are the main measurements that matter   length, width, thickness, tpi if it's slotted, anything else?  can someone make a belt,  i used to work in a hose shop, we'd do hydraulic hoses all the time,  gimme a psi, temperature, and what fluid you are working with and i can make you a hose type thing.  you'd think there would be somewhere a 'belt shop'.  give me dimensions and i can sew / fuse however they connect it and make a belt for you.  get one with better material, maybe slightly thicker, whatEVER you need to make it stronger.

Aaron

[princec]

That's exactly what they do ... except they got their sums wrong. They specced the belt to cope with presumably just a tiny bit more torque than the motor produces, but completely forgot that this isn't the only force the belt is subjected to when the wheel hits things in the road.

Haven't seen any reports of DSR/X belts snapping yet, despite more torque.

Cas