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Was riding home a few days ago on my Piaggio Fly 150ie (will be 2 years old tomorrow). Suddenly I hear a loud bang and my back wheel locks up (I think it was back, maybe even both). The bike starts skidding like a snake on the road, as if I locked up my breaks. Smoke from the tyre, engine going crazy. All happened very fast, I was going around 70km/h at that point.

Luckily, I was just off a speed bridge, where there are more cars and usually go around 90. I managed to keep the bike upright and pulled over to a side. The bike was revving, but not moving. I switched the engine off, tried it running again and same issue, a rattling sound was coming out.

After getting the bike towed to my mechanic and $330 later, it was a blown belt. The belt, according to my mechanic (and photo attached), didn't just rip and the bike rolled to a stop, like it generally should. It blew up into little pieces, thus jamming the whole engine which led the bike to lock up and stop so suddenly.

Had anyone had a similar experience? My biggest concern is the way the bike locked up, a car behind you would not stop in time, especially if its a truck.

http://i61.tinypic.com/2uo4cr8.jpg

Looks like that belt was def due for replacement.....how many k's?

Just unlucky it locked the back wheel up

err yup, that sure do look like a broke belt to me, I aint ever seed one before but I figger that'd be what they be lookin like.

I just picked my scoot up today after a service which included new belt and rollers.  My Honda Lead had done 18,663km on the original belt.  It didn't have any cracks that I know of but was advised it was a good time to replace it.  A friend with a Lead had to have a replacement at only 8,000km.  Was he unlucky or was I lucky?  How long do they generally last?

It happen to me once on the Piaggio Fly 150 , my Drive  belts broke as well and had get towed to Ace Scooter , to get the belt replaced cost around $100.00 for labour and parts at the time of service , now Every year when I get the Piaggio fly 150 serviced , I always replace the the belt with a new one,  , Paggio Fly 150 , are good chewing drive belts very quickly.

Got 10,500 k's out of last kevlar belt on my SYM Euro 150 when it snapped,was doing about 90 kph at the time but fortunately it just coasted to a stop & had to get towed home.Cost about $50 plus fitting for new kevlar belt.Will be checking it next time around 9,000 k's.

I did just under 12,000 km on it, got it services about a month ago and mechanic told me it should easily do 15,000 before it needed replacement. Definitely will get it replaced earlier next time. Another thing is that Piaggio, even though an Italian brand, for these scooters uses cheap Chinese parts, like this belt. All I can say is be careful, get these things replaced early and avoid similar issues. Don't know about the old models of Fly, but apparently these ones are very hard to get to and takes hours to take everytihg off, including the whole seat in order to change the bet. Thus, it's not a cheap job either, even just to check it.

kimlizzy:

A friend with a Lead had to have a replacement at only 8,000km.  Was he unlucky or was I lucky?  How long do they generally last?

Lizzy, the life you get out of a belt is a variable, some people ride their scoots very gently and place very little strain on the belt while others are nearly always at full throttle for nearly 100% of the time eg. the ones that just have to beat everyone else away from the lights and use their throttle more like an on/off switch.

In between those two extremes are the life parameters of a belt, nice and gentle = longer belt life.

You see, the mechanics told me a few reasons for burning the belt:

1. Bike goes up very steep hills, like an apartment carpark you need to climb each morning

2. You are heavy or you ride with a pillion , thus putting more strain on the belt

3. You keep revving the engine while standing still on the lights.

I don't really fit into any of the above. Full throttle from time to time, but it's not like these things are very powerful anyways, full throttle often is a must.

I was doing a long tour a couple of years ago with 3 belt breaks in a 2 month period.  Was generally riding 5 - 6 hours per day and at between 29 and 40 degress constant external temps.  This would have been over a distance of approx 10k km's.  I fired off a letter to the belt manufacturers telling them the stats but never heard back.  And yep, it is scary as a scary thing yelling "Boo" when it happens...

I had the same happen to my Fly 150. At 12.500 ks it nearly spat me down the road. I'm sure these scoots are not fitted with genuine Piaggio belts. 

Is a carb model.

Dezztroyer:

I had the same happen to my Fly 150. At 12.500 ks it nearly spat me down the road. I'm sure these scoots are not fitted with genuine Piaggio belts. 

Is a carb model.

They are not. My mechanic told me they use cheap Chinese parts. A little unfair, when you are buying an Italian scooter, thinking you get quality parts in it. 

I've only had one belt destroy itself like the photo, it was a kevlar belt and low kilometers.

All the other times I've used standard GATES belts knocking up perhaps 15,000km before replacing the belt due to wear or just bacause I had a new one.

I've seen a similar failure on a Bolwell 150 with a kevlar belt but no transmission lockup.

I think I'le stay with the GATES belts.

I replaced the original Piaggio belt on my Satelis when it had 19K km on it. Looked like new, although it is a much bigger unit than that fitted to the Fly. 

I'll replace this one (a Gates) somewhere between 35 and 40K km, which will be about this time next year.

A pretty straightforward job once you remove ALL the panels (headlight back) 

Just remember, as soon as oil etc gets on your belt, all bets are off!