why do bike cam belts need changing at 12-24,000k and car ones last 100,000k . is it an rpm issue?
why do bike cam belts need changing at 12-24,000k and car ones last 100,000k . is it an rpm issue?
No, it's a Ducati issue, same as those ridiculous clutches that sound like they are falling apart whenever they are disengaged.
Ducati recommended a belt change every year even if you didn't run the bike IIRC. There was waffle about "set".
Anyhoo the recent models have done away with all that. Still, if I had an older one I'd be careful, if a belt lets go it's expensive.
And yeah those clutches! My 1954 AJS probably had a better clutch. Imagine what the magazines would say if a Jap manufacturer offered a dry clutch.
But I did like my Ducati: https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/a...hmentid=228690
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
My guess: small pulleys compared to the ones on most cars. The belts have to go around a tight radius so there's lots of flexing, hence shorter belt life.
To a certain extent it's torque load distribution. A single with belt driven cam has very distinct torque load peaks as each cam lobe opens a valve.
A car engine - usually at least four cylinders - has a lot of torque peaks as multiple loads hit and release. This does at least distribute the wear around a belt.
Combine the Ducati's high point loadings with what are rather small pulleys and you get short belt life....
Belt servicing is either 24 or 30,000 kms on newer model Ducatis or 5 years. The same as valve clearance checks on a Japanese bike.
Smaller pulleys than cars, so tighter radius and I think critically a much narrower belt than what is used in a car engine.
They are all wet clutches now and have been for some years - I suspect only to meet noise regulations. I think the 1000cc race version of the new V4 comes with a dry clutch.
I wouldn't disagree now. But when Ducati brought it in, on the first 500 Pantah, it was head and shoulders better than anything else they could have used.
The bevel twins were a cost nightmare - both to assemble and run. Italian camchain of the period had to be duplex to stand the pace - see Laverda twins.
The belt worked - and was affordable.
But as revs rose and DOHC heads came in, the limits were reached. It's hard to see what else they could have used at the time. The market had rejected the expensive bevel twins and a gear drive of some other kind would have been just as expensive. Yes, it's feasible now, CNC manufacture and the general willingness to pay for high tech at the top end of the market have allowed things like the new V4 Panigale.
Mmmmm gear drive with clear windows in the covers to see them whizzing around.
it's not a bad thing till you throw a KLR into the mix.
those cheap ass bitches can do anything with ductape.
(PostalDave on ADVrider)
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