Maney belt drive users in Europe

Maney Belt Drives

I want to get a spare belt for my Maney setup, but due to Brexit and me being in Denmark, the cost of doing this has just gone up by a considerable amount due to the extra charges on stuff coming in from the UK.

I was wondering if there were other European Maney users in the same situation?

As far as I know, Steve uses the German Optibelt Omega 912-8M-30 belts, so it should be possible to buy them on this side of the canal at a better price.

Has anybody done this, and if so, do you have a contact? I find a couple of suppliers, but they are not very interested in supplying one or 2 belts, they have a minimum order corresponding to 3 or 4 belts.

Since (hopefully) this is more than a lifetime supply for me, if other European users were in the same boat, we could combine & do a sensible buy?

Hi Steve , here in France
https://www.123courroies.com/88-cou.../matiere-neoprene/marque_de_courroie-optibelt

marinatlas said:

Hi Steve , here in France
https://www.123courroies.com/88-cou.../matiere-neoprene/marque_de_courroie-optibelt

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But need to add that normally Optibelt could supply them either as HP or HL , what was yours ............?

you may use google to translate

marinatlas said:

But need to add that normally Optibelt could supply them either as HP or HL , what was yours ............?

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll check on this tonight.

Steve
Are you sure it's a 30mm? All mine are 40mm wide.
I might have a 912 30mm I have quite a few old belts for road use. Plenty of 880? For some reason.

His belt drives for road bikes are 30 mm , his belt drives for race bikes are 40 mm
regards Mike

here is the data sheet

Thank you for the english version, where they say HP for high speed (revs?) and HL for extreme loads , all the Steve Maney belts I got were the red one HP.

marinatlas said:

Fehler 404 - die von Ihnen angeforderte Seite konnte nicht gefunden werden.

Die von Ihnen angeforderte Seite konnte nicht gefunden werden.

www.optibelt.com

Courroies dentées haute performance optibelt OMEGA HP pour poulies HTD + RPP

Courroies dentées haute performance optibelt OMEGA HP pour poulies HTD + RPP du secteur pour les courroies dentées en caoutchouc du fabricant allemand Optibelt.

www.optibelt.com

you may use google to translate

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You may...but Deepl will do the job so much better!

SteveA said:

You may...but Deepl will do the job so much better!

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Hello Steve , just explain what you mean by Deepl..........?? as you know I am old and a bit French

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Now for a bit of background : I took the bike out for a test run. I had some problems with the clutch, it was behaving a bit odd, so I was fiddling with the adjuster on the lever when I heard a strange noise I could not identify - it sounded as if I had something stuck in a wheel and slapping against the frame.
Stopped, had a good look around, nothing. Strange...
Started the engine, and heard rattle and slap (sounds like a song title?) which seemed to come from the drive side.

Whipped the primary cover off (another advantage of belt drives - no oil!) and found the solution to both issues. The clutch adjuster nut had come off and was bouncing around ( = rattle noise). There were some bits of belt and rubber dust on the bottom of the cover, and a long string of material had been peeled off the belt (=slapping sound).
I pulled the rest of the string off the belt, removed all the debris I could, buttoned everything up again and trundled home.

On stripping the primary side, I found both belt pulleys had damage to the teeth. The crank pully has 3 damaged teeth, between 1/3 and 1/2 missing , the clutch has less damage. There's no marks on the nut though, but that must have been caught up between the belt and a pulley to do so much damage.

I'll post some damage photos later, but I'm just really annoyed at myself for forgetting to tighten the damn nut down.

I think I will be in the market for a new belt drive - Steve Maney still has some left, so I suspect I will be contributing to his retirement fund once again.

I did consider going back to chain drive, but that seems such a retrospective step - I've rather grown to like the belt setup. Bit cheaper though

Here's the photos I promised showing what happens when loose nuts rattle around in the primary drive case.

https://ibb.co/XVP2PN5

Actually, I suspect that the clutch pulley could be cleaned up to make a serviceable item by removing all the burrs, but then of course the hard coating is gone, so there will be wear problems.
The crank pulley is now for decoration only.

I've contacted Steve Maney, but it seems that he has just come out of quarantine after returning (from Thailand I believe), and the firms computer system had crashed, so he's not able to do any sales at this moment. Hopefully he will be back up and running in the not too distant future so that I can get another kit from him.

If this had been a chain drive, and I made the same silly error, the damage would have been rather more I suspect. Bent or broken shafts, chain and primary drive casing I think.
<Shudder>
The only slight worry is if any other damage has been done to the crank end shaft or the clutch main shaft. I'll have to check the runout on these before going any further.

I did look at some of the other belt drive options again. Norvil looks promising, but no response from them, and they do not do the same ratio as Steve does.
RGM looks good as well, but it's the same price as Steve's.
I do like the idea of a detachable crank pulley guide plate, since that allows a belt change without disturbing anything, but (hopefully) once fitted, the belt will not need to be touched for sometime.

The idea was to take the bike down to Spa for the Bikers Classic this year, but due to other circumstances (illness in the team), we have cancelled our bookings, so at least that pressure is off now, and the refund will pay for a new belt kit.

Actually, I'm having problems in reaching the organizers at the moment - mails to info@bikersclassics.be are bouncing at the moment, so I'll give them a call.

SteveBorland said:

........
I do like the idea of a detachable crank pulley guide plate, since that allows a belt change without disturbing anything, but (hopefully) once fitted, the belt will not need to be touched for sometime.

......

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No, you can't do that unless you loosen the gearbox. The pulley sliding off the taper is what allows me to change belts.

And the issue with a detachable crank pulley guide plate is that they detach...at inopportune times...creating similar havoc to that you already have.

I am currently using a 35 tooth Bob Newby pulley, which I think is very well made and will fit the same belts as used by Steve Maney and Norman White.

Bob will supply pulley only if required and in a wide range of sizes.

Stick with Maney while he still supplies.

marinatlas said:

Hello Steve , just explain what you mean by Deepl..........?? as you know I am old and a bit French

Click to expand...

See Cliffa's answer.... Best 'Traducteur' around!

SteveA said:

No, you can't do that unless you loosen the gearbox. The pulley sliding off the taper is what allows me to change belts.

And the issue with a detachable crank pulley guide plate is that they detach...at inopportune times...creating similar havoc to that you already have.

I am currently using a 65 tooth Bob Newby pulley, which I think is very well made and will fit the same belts as used by Steve Maney and Norman White.

Bob will supply pulley only if required and in a wide range of sizes.

Stick with Maney while he still supplies.

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Thanks for the Wise Words. I do rather like the quality feel of Steve’s stuff, so I hope he gets his ‘puter sorted soon.

SteveBorland said:

Thanks for the Wise Words. I do rather like the quality feel of Steve’s stuff, so I hope he gets his ‘puter sorted soon.

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Possibly wise, but certainly half asleep when I posted, the pulley has 35 teeth.....corrected...

(the Norman White drum has 65 teeth! Giving a 1.857 ratio with a smaller and lighter drum and AJS Stormer style plates)

I'm definitely the odd one out! The 960 & 750 have fixed gearbox mounts & I put the belt on by easing it on to the clutch basket pushing it on with my fingers while rotating the crank.
My unit Triumphs the same.
Slack is perfect once on. It's a faff but it works. I did loose a front pulley plate on my Fairspares Norvil kit at Brands but as I no longer take the keeper plate off that's no longer a concern.

Chris said:

I'm definitely the odd one out! The 960 & 750 have fixed gearbox mounts & I put the belt on by easing it on to the clutch basket pushing it on with my fingers while rotating the crank.
My unit Triumphs the same.
Slack is perfect once on. It's a faff but it works. I did loose a front pulley plate on my Fairspares Norvil kit at Brands but as I no longer take the keeper plate off that's no longer a concern.

Click to expand...

Bit of grease probably helps