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Outside wear...hmmm Perhaps belt tension...maybe contacting something like the sprocket cover or something along the line. I believe you already checked the belt guards.
Sure someone has said this but the outside of the belt like that is from it rubbing on something that got lodged up in the guard or some poorly improperly made modificiation. Have you checked tension? Could it be so loose, it hitting something?
One you check outter areas where it could rub and it surely will show if it's attached to bike, fix it. So far, that is just cosmetic. The drive teeth and belt layers are the strength. Those ribs are cooling fins.
UPDATE:
Before anything else was done, I needed to verify that it was still an ongoing issue.
Originally Posted by Ratwerke
...One idea you could try is take a crayon to a couple of inches, ride it, and determine if it is still rubbing (and against what).
Yeah... I had this very idea when I was taking the additional pictures trying to get a better detail view.
Instead of a crayon as was suggested above, I used fingernail polish and painted three ribs...
After painting the ribs, I went out for a few miles ride and came back home and checked for the polish.
It was still there...totally... it was untouched.
So, I took it out for a longer ride and came back and checked it again.
Untouched.
Well... I hadn't ridden at all this week so further testing was needed... I went for an even longer ride.
Nothing.
One of two things has happened.
1) The belt was loose and was resonating and hitting somewhere inside of the Sprocket cover and tightening the belt has stopped the issue
or...
2) Something WAS stuck in the sprocket cover and has since worked itself out.
I keep my bike very clean including the belt, but for now I'm more than happy to leave a couple of ribs painted with fingernail polish.
Those are the sexiest belt ribs I've seen in a long time!
Find the cause yet Indy?
It's not due to stress (IMHO) on the belt.
That looks like classic wear from abrasion.
If you don't find anything in the belt path that obviously caused it, it could be because something was temporarily wedged in your bike, caused the wear and then was ejected.
I'd go over the belt path and look for something that might rub it when the bike is under a weight load as well, not just sitting on the jiffy stand.
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