Drive belts

[wilf]

Hi Everyone
At the recent Girder Fork rally in Cooma I experienced considerable problems with the segmented belt on my B23 600.  In particular, as you can imagine, going up hills was a struggle where the belt would slip like crazyand display all the charateristics of a large rubber band.  At morning tea after talking to Graeme and Ian and attending to a oiling problem I removed 1 link which did help but the problem was still present.  I  took Graeme's advice and have now fitted a "Gates Hi POwer C75" belt which is 79 inches..... it works perfectly.
One of the added benefits of attending a rallly is that you get quality advice.

Wilf   

[Ian]

Wilf, you didn't look happy when I overtook you up hills on my 1912 single speed Triumph !! Not something a 4hp Douglas owner would be used to (I only ever saw a blur as Graeme went past on his 3.5). It was a really great rally though - as usual. Maybe with the new belt I will have to take something faster next year to keep up with you.

[graeme]

Good to hear that this has fixed your belt problems Wilf. Now get out and enjoy the machine!
I spent the weekend riding the 3 1/2 at our club's weekend annual trial. It was based in the mountains west of Sydney, and the route included lots of challenging hills - and once again the Douglas performed well, with no sign of belt slip. Of the veterans at the rally, only one had belt troubles, and you guessed it - a link belt! 'Nuff said!
Cheers, Graeme

[Doug]

In the fifties when my father and his friends where running about in a series of second-hand Ford model As, the correct length and extra wide v-belt used to drive the water pump and generator was not always available, they hit upon using link belts. Since these cars were used day and night, the generator was charging pretty near all the time to keep the battery topped up. Usually the first sign of a slipping belt was the engine ignition faltering when the lights were turned on! The link belts were never intended to transmit a lot of power, and they were forever have to take out a link as the belts stretched. The standing joke was eventually one would be left with one extremely elongated link stretched right around the pulleys!

-Doug