Modern Vespa

What is the current thought on CVT belt replacement? Especially for the LX as I am at 12000 miles. Can I go longer and how long? The PO had the belt done at 6-7,000 miles by the dealer.

Without a dealer to take it to I am thinking of doing it myself. It is not that I can not do it it's that now I have to do it.


The Vespa manual says 12,000 miles.
I think I am going to go OEM.
Should I do the sliders also?
Who is the OEM supplier?
Everything is stock.

Thanks in advance!!!!

I have a GTS and I checked my belt and rollers at 4,500 miles and they were fine. I'm getting close to 9,000 miles now and I plan to replace the belt with an OEM part and install 10.5g sliders. My guess is I could go much farther on the belt and rollers, but my needs are more reliability driven.

I'll most likely replace both tires at 9,000 miles too. The rear was replaced with a Heidenau at 4,500. The front looked fine at the time. I'm thinking this will be my normal routine for maintenance; inspect belt/rollers at 4,500. Replace them at 9,000. Rear tire at 4,500 and both at 9,000. I'll do a good cleaning of the clutch and replace the final drive oil every 4,500 miles too.

Thad

Based on other posts here, I would agree that "run it 'til it breaks" is not a good maintenance strategy. I'd say that, at 12,000 miles, it is definitely time to replace the belt. Thad's approach certainly seems prudent.

You can find the service intervals (& links to the workshop manuals) in the wiki
Service Intervals
Workshop Manuals

For the belt its at 7,500 mile intervals (the Vespa manual says 12,000 kilometres), so you have a bit of time (6,000 + 7,500= 13,500 miles).

The rollers are due at the same time as the belt. change the plastic guides also.
You can buy replacement OEM parts from Scooterwest-

There's the service manual & write ups here to help. There's a couple specific tools you need (plus a torque wrench).
I've found taking pictures at each step of disassembly helps with reassembly.

My mechanic replaced mine at 6,000.
Depending on use,,,,I guess everyone is different.

Scooter West has a vid doing the change,its easy.1hour +/- 1hour lol

hey what about your valves?when do they get checked?

I have to set valves on my mower,it back fires when i shut it off.
The exhaust valve must be tight.

I always change mine before the I reach the recommended interval. The cost of not getting the last few miles out of the belt is nothing compared to the cost of a flatbed to come rescue you on the side of the road.

Or an ambulance if the belt breaks and locks up the rear wheel...

12,000 miles is way too many miles on one belt.

My LX is currently on just under 9000 miles, I'm not sure that the previous owner had the belt replaced. Is it an expensive job?

It's generally part of a large service which includes oil change, oil filter, rollers, cleaning or replacing air filter, spark plug, possibly changing gear oil (depending on how long since last changed), check all fluids, brakes, clutch, etc..

Add to that list an hour or so of labor.

But in the end, it isn't the cost of doing the periodic large service... it is the potential cost of NOT doing it that should worry you.

I have an invoice from the last owner of a service carried out a few months ago. It had oil, filter and spark plug replaced. I think I'm going to clean the air filter myself soon. It's just the belt and rollers I'm worried about.

I'll leave it to some of your fellow Brits to offer price estimates. We pay a lot more for parts here due to very steep import taxes, and our labor rates are almost certainly different from yours.

Good luck.

I change mine every 2 riding seasons regardless of miles. A locked up rear tire at 55 mph is not a good thing.

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That seems the wrong way round to look at it - in two years someone might have ridden zero miles (so no point changing it) or 50,000 miles - and so would have had to change broken belts four times in that period.

I inspect belts every 3-4,000 miles, and change out if there's any doubt it'll survive until the next inspection. So it might get changed at 6,000 or 15,000 miles depending on the bike and usage, and might have lasted three months or five years.

Way past due. A friend had hers go at 65mph and it had slightly over 10k on it. She didn't lock up the rear wheel and all that was left were a few bits of rubber. I change mine around every 7-8k.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a shredded belt wouldn't normally lock up a rear end. I've seen plenty of CVT belt shred, at various speeds and on various scooters (most Chinese) and never has the rear locked up.

It happens a lot. We get reports fairly regularly from people who broke a belt at speed, and the rear wheel locking up is often reported along with that. It usually lets go after a few seconds, but it's still a very dangerous thing to have happen at speed.

We think the specific problem is that when the belt snaps (rather than shreds) it wraps itself around the clutch pulley until the clutch pulley is completely surrounded, with the belt pressed against the inside of the transmission housing. At that point, the rear wheel will not turn freely until the clutch shoes disengage.

ok your wrong.

just cause you have never seen one lock up doesn't mean it can't .

It CAN and HAS happened to others.

I replace mine at 6000 miles. After sitting at the side of I77 guarding someone's MP3 250 I decided I did not need that in my life.

His Belt had less than 6000 miles on it.

Was it an OEM belt? I understand OEM belts can fail early too, but I would think your chances of an early failure increase it you use something other than an OEM belt.

Afaik it was OEM... But he does not have a throttle, that thing only has two settings: WFO and off.

I never said it couldn't happen. I said it wouldn't "normally" happen. Meaning more often than not a shred wouldn't lock the rear wheel. Granted, the odds being in your favor doesn't make it any less butt cheek puckering if it did happen.

Not CVT or belt related, but lockup related...We had a local rider on a P125 seize doing well under 40mph recently. He was relaxed cruising and feeling secure in the leisurely pace when he seized...No engine lull or anything beforehand, just a sudden hard lock. He'd never had a seize on the scoot before and said afterwards that had he not been riding dirt backs in his youth he might not have made it out without going over. The reason I mention this is because one of the reasons i've gradually been switching over to modern vespas is they're far less likely (my opinion) to have a failure that locks the rear wheel (not saying it CAN'T happen.)

If you are saying that an engine seizure is much less likely on a 4T than on a 2T - I certainly agree.

so are there any signs that a belt needs replacing? i'm just over 8200 miles...mostly highway speeds if that makes a difference?

I siezed a 100 cc Penton enduro bike running about 60 mph down a gravel road. Slid sideways for like what seemed forever till i got the clutch pulled in and finally freed up the trans. The cyl bottom sleeve had broke and wadded itself into the crank. Sucks because I was leading my class I found out later and the guy who won only finish like 15 miles ahead of me , he didn't finish either.

Im over 14000 on my current OEM belt, wanna squeeze 20000 out of it. The 1st one I changed at 10000 looked like new. Your mileage may vary/

+1 7,500 miles

You'll feel a loss of power and possibly a 'slipping' feeling. I like to get mine done around 7,500. It's certainly not something I want to have go while on the road.

I think it's rare that you would have warning sign. I have almost 9,000 miles on mine now with a good mixture of stop/go and 60mph driving. I opened the cover and checked it at 4,500 miles and it looked brand new. However, measuring the width did indicate it's wearing as you would expect. It was well above the minimum width. In the next few weeks I'll be changing mine. I expect it will still look new, but narrower.

I don't have any real experience with a belt shredding, but my guess is once it starts, you're just seconds away from it failing. No warning, no limping home, just a total failure and whatever comes along with it. I don't want to experience that. When I change mine I'll get a good idea of how long the OEM belt lasts with my particular driving style and use. With that, I'll decide how often I'll plan on changing the belt in the future.

Thad

I've had three warnings - one I didn't recognise, and that's when a belt shredded on me due to a wobbly J Costa variator. The first two, I noticed Kevlar strands and fluff appear out of the rear transmission case vent. Each time I was able to carefully limp to a dealer and get a belt change on the spot.