Replacement belt?

[SpikeOne]

Here's a fairly simple question, but I don't know the answer.

Once my warranty ran out, I decided to do my own servicing, and I only do around a thousand miles a year. Not that it's proven to be expensive, but it saves me a 30 odd mile round trip and I really ought to find out what makes the machine tick. My service handbook says it should be serviced every 6 months or 6000 miles whichever is soonest, and I looked it up over the weekend to see what was involved. I was surprised to see just how little was in there, and that there are only 2 schedules to follow, a short one, followed by a long one, repeated for only 4 years.

The short one is basically change the oil, clean the filters and plug. Job done.
The long one includes tappet adjustment, replacement belt and a whole host of other stuff, again with oil, plug and filter replacement.

My thoughts are that, as I'm only doing about 500 miles between them, I don't really need the short one, as the long one repeats the same steps and adds in others. Also, do I really need to change the belt once a year? This seems extravagant and unnecessary. Finally, not that I have any intention of selling it, but how would a prospective buyer view this thinking?

Any thoughts?

[MrGrumpy]

Belts are normally supposed to be changed every few 000 miles or km, so I can't see the slightest point in changing the belt every year if you are doing a small mileage. The baby Burgman doesn't have a fixed change mileage, just 'inspect' every service. I only do around 2500 miles pa on the Burgman - whilst the service intervals are 3000 or so, I usually have it serviced once a year. On the other hand, if you are doing tiny mileages, its probably a good idea to change the oil reasonably frequently.

[Sylar]

On the Silverwing, Belt replacement is 16,000mls, i have changed mine. On my Burgman 400 that has done 24,000mls as far as i know it has the original belt on it, i bought it at 15,000mls. I will be changing my Silverwing Belt again shortly at 32,000mls. If you do such little mileage i would not worry about the belt and leave it alone. As someone else has pointed out, the most important things are regular oil and filter changes.

[bornagainbiker]

On the B400 Suzuki recommends a change at 14,500 mile intervals, but like Sylar and many others 20,000+ is easily achieved, but is dependant on your riding style and conditions. My B400 had a new oem belt fitted at 15k and checking it last week at 31k (16k use) it was still in good condition with no noticeable higher revs shown which is a typical sign of belt width wear. If you are opening the cvt just clean and check but at your yearly miles I would not be too bothered for a long while yet. Again oil and filters (some have a simple thimble to clean) are relatively cheap so change it more regular than stated and in most cases can take less than 20 minutes to do.

[anonstarter]

SYM Citycom 2008 @ 9000 Miles. Sym serviced every year until warranty expired September 2011.
I've just changed the belt and rollers to Dr Pulley Sliders and there's quite a difference in acceleration.
The 'original' belt - which had covered 9000 miles - looked good - and next to the new one the only difference was the old one has shiny edges!
There was a build up of 'dust' which was cleaned out.
As for the eventual value when selling the bike it depends on the buyer.
The service history DOES add value.
There are some cracking mechanics who really know the Brand & Model and take a real pride in what they do, and there are some disillusioned numpties too!
How much of a rocket scientist do you need to be to change the oil, clean the thimble 'oil' filter and clean or replace the air filter?
I guess the buyer would need to assess whether the seller is the type of person who genuinely looked after it and did it right!

[michaelphillips]

if you intend to do it yourself, just keep a record of all invoices, no matter how big an item (cost) or small, and i generally write on the invoice the date installed and milage of scoot, and any relative info, which i think adds more or less the same value as taking the scoot to the dealer, whom just show parts cost etc..... it shows you look after your goods and will be easy to sell if needed

[gn2]

When I was researching the Downtown as a potential purchase I discovered a good Kymco forum with a handy link to the service manual
http://www.kymcoforum.com/index.php?topic=8628.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
With such low mileages I doubt it will need much servicing, more important would be to ensure that you adopt the correct strategies for long term storage.

[SpikeOne]

Well that should be no problem.
It lives in the garage, and hardly ever goes out in the rain.
It get's washed about once a month and polished within an inch of it's life when I think it looks a little dusty.
Still looks as pretty as it did the day I bought it, apart from a slight wear patch on the tupperware where my jeans rub against it putting the side stand down, and some mottling on the black paint on the silencer.

The intention was, and still is, to keep it forever. I love it to bits and don't see much point in parting with it while it costs me little to keep it going. At 1000 miles per year, even after 10 or 12 years it's going to be a low mileage bargain for someone provided it doesn't suffer any physical damage.

I have a Kymco workshop manual for it. I got one from the dealer when I bought the bike, but it's not up to Haynes standards.

As to the forum, I used to be on that too, but that's not much better. It's not what you call live, and I stopped looking at it years ago.

This one's much more interesting, even during the quiet periods.