Belt drive-why don't more do it?

Anyone got any idea why sports bikes don't use belt or shaft drive? Buells have it and so does the BMW F800?

[Lissa]

Dunno. Belt drives do make sense...................but God, they are ugly. Maybe that's why? Aesthetics?

It is the width and the non split nature of them that makes them not attractive for the majority of manufacturers

But...

... but...

... then I wouldn't have the slimmest of excuses to put Gilles Titainium Chain Adjusters on my bike to match the rearsets.

Less power getting to the rear wheel than with a chain (main reason for not having them on actual race bikes).

Looks.

Width.

They're not as practical as people make out - a good quality chain and sprockets, with a scottoiler will last as long, if not longer than most belts. If the scottoiler is set up properly with a touring kit/lube tube, the amount of maintenance/adjustment needed on a chain is negligible (IE usually need to replace tyres before the chain needs adjusting).

But the whole point of the belt is that you don't need scottoilers etc etc

Agreed, I had a belt drive bike. Almost maintenance free, clean and silent. Smooth gear changes and drive too. They last a long time too!

Perhaps they would have issues dealing with a hyper bike power output. I've got shaft drive on my current bike and it's good having a clean back wheel/body with no gak over everything. It's not forgiving though, you have to make good gear changes as there's less play than a chain and cush drive setup.

1. You need to get a dealer to adjust it (when it does need adjusting) and it's not something you could do reliably (and safely) yourself

2. If a bit of gravel/stone gets in there then the belt, the pulley, your bike and your good self will all be a bit shagged as things get chewed up and damaged and it tends to not want to keep moving. Much more likely to happen than with a chain as the belt is wider, bigger pulley makes it run closer to the ground, no holes for stuff to be pushed through...

Many of the bikes that use pulleys and belts have converter kits available to make them chain driven systems... There aren't many belt kits being sold for chain driven bikes.

i personaly think the belt drive on the buells look awsome, with the tension pully down below, and i think it would be perfect for bikes like the sv, er, gsf, etc, as not huge amounts of power is being applied. i would of thought the cost of a belt drive system is a bit more than standard chain drive though

[northwind]

I reckon there's 2 main reasons here. Habit, and development. Even in the time since Buell started using them they've massively improved their belt methods, frinstance, and that's Buell- their R&D budget wouldn't build a japanese commuter. Chains, on the other hand, are an extremely developed, tried and tested solution. So, it makes sense to use chains which are already a known quantity, rather than developing belts which most owners blatantly don't want.

Belt power losses can be lower than chain, incidentally, as is rotating mass. And as for conversion kits, chain kits are easy to make as the parts are either available already, or easily made, but belts aren't easy to find in the right sizes. I think the SV kit uses all BMW parts, but has issues with the front sprocket size due to the SV engine layout, for instance. It's just not practical to make bespoke belts for such an application, especially when demand is so low, but if you want a 520 chain with 100-odd links, you just buy one. If it's too long, you cut a couple off, can't do that with belts of course. And sprockets are easy.