friend has a 09 street glide. pulling out of his driveway, it broke a belt. it had 1900 miles. local dealership replaced it under warranty. it made it 10 miles, broke again. they replaced again, but claimed abuse and charged him $788 to get it back. 2 weeks later, we went to a rally 150 miles away. yep.. broke again! dealer there claims it had been being installed way too tight.they did warranty it. local dealer told me yesterday that the newer bikes with the wider tires and narrower belts just wont hold up. with all the R&D harley does, i find that hard to believe. this bike has a 103, so its not built high (94hp) has anyone else been having any belts problems on the newer bikes?

 

Friend of mine with an 09 Ultra had one fail at around 3000 miles. Dealer replaced it under warrenty. We both kind of thought it was just a fluke. Interesting...

By the way, I see it's your first post. Welcome to the forum!

 

5500 hard miles and no problems with the belt knock knock

 

plenty of us are pushing well over 100hp/tq on the 1" (or whatever it is) belt. Correct tention is crutial for longevity

 

Bottom line is tension and alignment.

 

I just put a new belt on my bike, it was a good bit of work but $788.00. The belt cost $150.00. That seems like a lot of labor cost.

 

6,000 mi. and no problems. adjusted it once, used fish scale for tension measurement (dealer didn`t stock tension tool!)

 

09+ models align themselves with the cam tentioner

 

I would start looking real hard at the sprockets if you are sure tension has been correct. If one of them is defective or has a flaw it will be the death of the precision synchronous belt like the Gates Polychain.

As mentioned above tension and alignment are critical. These belts don’t mesh with the sprockets properly if not tensioned correct. I sell them for industrial applications the two biggest reasons for failure in our world are “UNDER Tensioned” and the introduction of foreign materials that get between the belt and the sprocket.

An under tensioned belt allows the teeth to climb up the edge of the sprocket and then at one point it is forced suddenly back down in the tooth and you will see a very clean break right across the belt.

If tension is correct I would look at the sprockets. If the same guy keeps putting the belt on I would question whether he knows how to properly tension it.

Good luck