Modern Vespa

Yep, 2000 miles & my belt snapped, thanks for the GREAT DEAL on the Dayco belt guys!!! Thank God I was on a country road with no traffic.

Since you live everywhere, you're never far from home

Just FYI. In my 10+ years on MV, it seems the consensus is to stay with the OEM belts and change every 8K-9K miles as recommended by Piaggio and you'll be fine. Seems like many aftermarket belts have more premature failures than the OEM belts. I'm not advocating one way or another; Im just telling you what I've observed over time.

Just sayin'. Miguel

In another topic i pointed out that the original Piaggio belt is slightly different from the commercial ones, even with the measurements, and this happens with other belts of other scooters models; why?
Because many are declared as "compatible" but compatible does not mean identical.

but look at the money you saved over the OEM belt.

not all things are created equal or compatible.

It wasn't the belt. Dayco makes OEM belts for Piaggio and a lot of other companies. The main reason we don't sell Dayco belts is because Piaggio belts are about as cheap. For a belt to fail that soon, either something was installed wrong, or something else broke. I think that when they open it up, you will find that one of the nuts wasn't tightened down, or they left off one of the washers in the variator assembly. It would be a good idea for you to be there when they do open it up.

From another thread If I had to guess....

if you want to pay for shipping you can get the one I tried.

Unfortunately, MV gives you a slightly myopic view of scooter servicing. In the US, where most of us are, most aftermarket belts are installed by owners, often for the first time. And many of them are installed with sliders. The owner often then takes the scooter to the dealer, who puts on an OEM belt, and all is good.
In Italy, and most of Europe, there are franchise and independent shops everywhere, and they install a lot of aftermarket belts and other parts. These are people who have worked on scooters for decades, and they have no issues with OEM or quality aftermarket belts. Out of more than a million belts Dayco sells every year for scooters, probably less than 100 of them end up on big scooters in the US. And 90% or more of them were not put on by professionals.
We import exactly one Dayco belt model for one customer. It fits an older Derbi two stroke liquid cooled 50cc scooter. The person who buys them from us actively races his scooter, and won't use anything else. I don't think he uses them because he thinks they will break sooner than other belts.

How did you know I am myopic?

It's like being chased by Mr. Magoo....

Agree with Motovista, Dayco belts are fine and OEM on lots of bikes including Suzuki.

Usual causes of early breakages is bad fitting procedure or fitting the belt the wrong way round, leaving off washers or not replacing pulleys/shives when they are worn (which accelerates the wear on the belt exponentially). With Piaggio engines I always fit OEM because the dimensions are better and they last longer because of it.

dayco may sell great belts for other scooters. but that doesnt mean the belt they sell for gt200 is great as well. improperly installed is certainly possible. but I know without shadow of doubt the gt200 belt sold here in usa sucks. it slips because it doesnt have no where near the rubber surface area touching the pulleys as the piaggio belt. I also think if I had ignored the slipping and continued to use it would have led to the belt overheating and shredding itself on the highway.

but carry on with your member shredding ways. great fun for you guys I guess. cant wait to see the next post where you are always right and everyone else always wrong..

I found MV's post to be informative, reasoned, and supported.

I would think the purpose of a thread like this would be for future GTS owners to decide whether or not they should buy the dayco $45 dollar belt or the piaggio $90 dollar belt.

there are two actual users of the belt in here that are sorry they tried the belt.

there are others in here that havent actually used the belt. but are actually sure its user error and there cant be anything wrong with the belt.

as a result I see others may still buy the dayco belt for the gt200. because they think they can triumph with installing correctly.

do you really find this thread informative?

Hi Jerry, I'm actually mostly agreeing with you regarding the dimensions of the belt. But the Dayco belt for the GT200 is mostly ok I found. It measures almost identically to the OEM belt. But for some other bikes I've found them to be one or two mm out sometimes. Which by the way is still ok and doesn't cause any issues. It just means it will need replacing bang on time. Don't go over the recommended replacement time.

So I see you haven't actually had much experience yourself with Dayco belts then Jerry! If you had, you'd know they were ok. Amongst other makes of belts, I've fitted dozens and dozens of them to various makes of scooter without issues. That's why many major manufacturers fit them as OEM. Although as I say in my earlier post above, I use Piaggio OEM for Vespa as I do find they last a bit longer due to the reason mentioned above.

And Jerry, why are you so acidic all the time?

because you are supplying general knowledge to the thread and I am supplying very specific knowledge. and you dont see the difference because you know soooo much about scooters.

readers should be advised specific knowledge is more important concerning the dayco gt200 belt. if you live in the usa dont buy the belt!

But Jerry, you need to re-read my post. I've fitted the Dayco belt to the GT200. I've also added further information about the Dayco belt which you seem not to know. So my knowledge is just as specific as yours but probably more so as I did this for a living for years.

Your bad experience seems to indicate to me that you either had the wrong belt (quite likely from your description of the belt you had), or a faulty belt which is not very likely. No new Dayco belt specified for the GT200 will slip if fitted correctly with the shives in good condition. So something was definitely amiss I'll grant you that. But unlikely it's the belt.

so I will give you the benefit of doubt what you say is true. I think maybe usa is getting different belts than UK.
but then I go to my ebay to find the purchase. then I find the belt came from UK.

your opinions remain the same throughout the thread. the dayco belt for the gt200 while not as good as piaggio is an okay belt to put on a gts.

my opinion remain. its a VERY bad idea. I am still using the used belt that I put back on because the stupid dayco belt slipped. I didnt get my 45 back. it was a waste of time and money. I am just trying to help others suffer a similar fate.

maybe we should ask the OP if he searched and found people on modern vespa using the dayco belt? cause it sure sounds to me he made modern vespa part of his complaint.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vespa-GT-200-L-Granturismo-2003-2004-Dayco-Drive-Belt-22-0-x-826/301776090523?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649