New Drive Belt and Sliders

So I picked up my 2003 SWing about 5 weeks ago and have been cleaning it up and changing the liquids, etc.  With 14,800 miles, I decided to change out the drive belt and while in there, to replace the rollers with Dr Pulley sliders (26 gr).  The objective, aside from a new belt, was to quiet down some of the vibration and associated noise.

First, a thanks to Bigbird for the video demonstrating the procedure.  I probably would not have tried it without that.

It took about an hour and a half to do the whole thing.  The only problem was twisting off a bolt when putting it back together and that was easily handled.

The results:  while there is still vibration, it is noticeably quieter.  Acceleration appears to be a little bit better (subjective judgement) and at 65MPH actual, I was running at 5,000 RPM as opposed to 5,400 with the old belt and rollers.  All in all, a worthwhile effort and doable by pretty much anybody with the tools.

Gary

Congrats Gary! Glad it worked out good for you. Keep us posted. And don't throw away your old belt

GHM-PM wrote:

Congrats Gary!  Glad it worked out good for you.  Keep us posted.  And don't throw away your old belt

Yeah, I will hang on to that. Have not checked the belt and rollers to see if they remain in spec, but I will do that tomorrow. Been busy riding my scooter all over town today! The weather is gorgeous and the roads are full of bikes.

Gary

Gary,

It is good you did your own maintenance. It saves a lot of money and feels good sometimes to do your own work. I liked the sliders better than the rollers and felt it was a bit nicer riding.

JeffR_ wrote:

It is good you did your own maintenance.  It saves a lot of money and feels good sometimes to do your own work.  I liked the sliders better than the rollers and felt it was a bit nicer riding.

You know, Jeff, it really does feel good to do something like that. I'm not a "wrench", but I can follow instructions. I was thinking about that when I was buttoning the job up. And while it may just be perception, the bike does feel smoother to me.

Gary