See how a badly maintained belt drive caused carnage
Apprentice technician Ollie Michelin had a shock when this 125 Yamaha rolled in
‘The owner ‘only rode it gently’ so didn’t see the need to change them’
When Flitwick Motorcycles got a call from a Yamaha YP125 Majesty scooter rider at the side of the road they thought this twist-and-no-go would be a straightforward job. Workshop Manager Charles Marvell explained: “We have seen loads of scooter belt failures as a lot of those riders try to get by with as little maintenance as possible. When we took a look at the mileage it had 25,000 on the clock and the belt and rollers should be changed at 12,000 miles.
“The owner claimed he ‘only rode it gently’ so he didn’t see the need to change them.”
Normally the belt wraps around the rear pulley and the drag feels like the brake is binding on as the engine over-revs. But when apprentice technician Ollie Michelin stripped it down it looked like a hand grenade had been lobbed inside the casing because the front pulley had disintegrated and the rollers were mangled.
It was so bad in there it was impossible to say which part had failed first,
“He was lucky that it didn’t lock the rear wheel up completely and send him skidding up the road on his backside,” said Ollie Fortunately, because the drivetrain is isolated from the rest of the engine there wasn’t any collateral damage, and it only took
Ollie about an hour-anda-half to strip it down, clean out the debris and fit new parts to get the scooter back on the road in tip-top condition. Better still, Flitwick had a secondhand front pulley in stock for just a tenner. Workshop boss Charles added: “When you consider that a belt and roller set comes in at £61, and the drivetrain filter is £5.71, for an area so critical, it’s not a lot of cash to be safe, rather than sorry.”