A no chain Bandit??

[icemakk]

After wracking up over 34,000 km in 2 seasons I have grown weary of chain lube and messes as well as the constant chain tension adjustments. I'd like to see Suzuki offer a sport tourer with shaft or belt drive. My nod would be for the belt as it is lighter and less costly and an auto slack adjuster would be simple to put in IMO.
Beull had belts on bikes with similar power so it is possible.
Question: Has anyone done an after market swap to a belt drive and how hard would that be to do?
With the sport tourer market heating up it could give the less pricey Bandit a selling edge over the costly shaft ST's that the other 3 Japanese makers are offering.
Thoughts?

[Red01]

I've always thought it's a great idea.  The 1991-1994 GSX1100G was the same basic engine as the B12 and had shaft drive.  If I was a good fabricator, I'd seriously consider building my own GSF1200"G"... 

I don't think a belt coversion would work, though I could be wrong.  The main issue with a conversion would be the wider sprockets needed for a suitable belt.  I ought to be easy for Suzuki to do in the design phase of a bike though - and they do have a little belt experience.  The 650 Savage/Boulevard S40 is belt drive.

[icemakk]

yes the belt is wider but there is room to work I think. The front sprocket cover is just plastic so cutting out more would be easy. Attaching the rear sprocket and keeping the ABS ring on there would require a pro fabricator.

I am not sure I would want the old shaft drive as so many advancements have been made to eliminate the hobby horse action some shafts have and I am not convinced the old one would behave like, say, the Councours or FJR plus I want to keep the bike as light as possible.

[Dave 02 1200]

I recently saw a belt-drive kit for a Hayabusa.

Maybe one will come out for a Bandit.

I have two Buells with belt drive and love it.

The only downside is that I can't change overall gearing as easily with belt drive as I can with a chain and sprockets.

[icemakk]

I recently saw a belt-drive kit for a Hayabusa.

Maybe one will come out for a Bandit.

I have two Buells with belt drive and love it.

The only downside is that I can't change overall gearing as easily with belt drive as I can with a chain and sprockets.

That's okay, I am pretty happy with the gearing as is. Just sick of the chain mess and not having to carry a can of chain lube means I can take a bit more clothing on trips.
If you find a link for the Busa one please share it.

[Red01]

Attaching the rear sprocket and keeping the ABS ring on there would require a pro fabricator.

Isn't the ABS ring on the rear brake disc?

I am not sure I would want the old shaft drive as so many advancements have been made to eliminate the hobby horse action some shafts have and I am not convinced the old one would behave like, say, the Councours or FJR plus I want to keep the bike as light as possible.

The FJR doesn't have any fancy anti-jacking linkage like the Connie 14's, Guzzi's or BMW's have.  It's sole anti-jacking measure is to have a shaft as long as possible. 
Considering if you did a shaft coversion on a B12 (which might be easier than the 1250 since there's already Suzuki-made parts that will bolt onto to gearbox for a shaft drive output) you would have to modify or fab the swingarm.  Anti-jacking linkage could be made at the same time.  It's just a dream of mine.  I'll never follow through and do it.

[smooth operator]

I don't get to do much touring, but what if you could design a enclosure for the chain and a Scott oiler? Maybe some boot parts off a old Matador or something? Matador just came to mind because I was a old Bultaco guy, but I'm sure there were others,might not work, just a thought.

[pmackie]

a Scott oiler?

I was thinking the same thing. On the TriumphRat site I also participate in, there are a number of guys have recently installed a auto chain oiler, and there are a bunch of guys who have done it here on a Bandit as well.

I don't usually find the chain maintenance a big issue, but I am considering installing a chain oiler on the ST1050 just cause I can...I think they are a pretty good idea, and should extend chain life and reduce chain adjustments.

[icemakk]

I am trying to get rid of the mess. An oiler still would be messy. Hoping this belt conversion comes thru soon

[Snubnose]

I am trying to get rid of the mess. An oiler still would be messy. Hoping this belt conversion comes thru soon

Try DuPont Teflon Multi-Use Lubricant.- no more mess!

[icemakk]

I am trying to get rid of the mess. An oiler still would be messy. Hoping this belt conversion comes thru soon

Try DuPont Teflon Multi-Use Lubricant.- no more mess!

I'll have to track some of that down in the meantime.

[pmackie]

An oiler still would be messy

I haven't used one, so I can't really comment, but most users cite that fact that they are much less messy as one of the advantages. If I proceed on the Trumpet this winter, I'll update you all in the spring.

[JamieK]

I had a ScottOiler on my VFR, it was a bit of a PITA to setup but once set it was great. Tried a Loobman on the Bandit and wasn't impressed. I couldn't get it setup right and ended up taking it off. I would do a belt drive conversion on the Bandit in a heartbeat if it was available.

[icemakk]

Well as it turns out Scootworks is letting me know as soon as they have their belt conversion for the Bandit finished.
I am looking forward to a cleaner and quieter bike as well as the extra socks and undies that will fit in the space that the can of chain lube used to take up on trips.

[Slider]

The rear fork(s) would have to be new or heavily modified as they would have to be moved out a lot for a wide enough belt to come even close to handling 100+ hp. Most drive belts and chains are massively underdesigned for bikes... they ought to be much larger but generally get away with it since we rarely put much more than a small fraction of top engine HP through them. If the roads had speed limits of 130mph we would be changing chains several to many times a year.

Another problem is that rubber doesn't like the high speed impact it gets from the drive sprockets at, say 100mph up. At speed, rubber starts to behave in a much more brittle fashion when impacted.

All sprockets are subject to something called "Chordal Action". They look round but are really polygons with a flat sided drive action. You can see this when you see a chain under heavy load... impossible on a bike but easy on a stationary machine where you can see the chain seems to vibrate up and down at the sprockets, (especially as the sprockets wear).

I may be wrong, but I believe that sport bikes should/will never be using belts, (the V Rod is no sport bike, methinks).