Belts have proved themselves for many years now. The newest are stronger than ever.

Now if HD was smart enough to follow Eric Buell's lead and put idler pulleys one them they would last forever as no stone could cause trouble.

They did do it on the XR1200 but need to go on all families. It is just dumb that the touring family does not have idler pulleys.

 

A friend of mine rode up in Canada on a lot of dirt/gravel roads one summer... He told me his belt failed due to gravel / grit getting into it.

 

It's a dice toss but the odd's are in your favor for longevity with decent treatment . I've seen them with 90,000+ still looking decent and like another poster said 3 miles out new and snap one .

I carry a spare primary belt at ALL times don't care if it's to the corner store , had them run till the pulleys wore out and snapped one just hitting the starter button before .

 

all the riding and talking I've done in the last 4yrs around Harley's I've only seen one break and they was a dude doing burn outs, broke on his 4th one.

 

88k on my original belt, but I did change out my GF's belt on her Dyna due to damage by a rock or bolt that put a hole in her belt.

 

The only one that I broke was totally my fault (trying to show my a$$), I have seen one go at the drag strip (again the riders fault), BUT never even heard of one just giving up for no reason (with proper maintenance they should last almost forever).

 

107K on my '08 Wide Glide, original belt still looks great.