Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Slipping clutch, transmission nightmares, gearing or belt conversions and modifications go here.
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Triangles
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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby Triangles » Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:04 pm

no problem. I've contemplated changing my sprockets from stock 16/42 to 17/40. this would change the final drive from stock 2.625 to 2.35 which is pretty close to the scootworks belt conversion of 2.22. I'm no mechanical genius, but it seems like going from 2.625 to 2.22 is a rather huge jump and may not work well. I found the sprockets for about $50 bucks for the pair. that way I could "test drive" the taller gearing before dropping 6 Franklins to find out I don't like the taller gearings. I'm also curious to see if you really get an extra 7mpg (14%) as scootworks claims.
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burkbuilds
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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby burkbuilds » Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:27 pm

There are so many variables when it comes to gas mileage. How constant does the driver maintain a certain speed, how fast are you going, not to mention gear ratios and carburetor adjustments, valve adjustments, how worn your tires are . . . . For what it's worth, I switch from stock 16/42 (2.625:1 ratio) to 17/42 (2.47:1 ratio) right off the bat because most of my miles are highway, and I usually try to run right at 75mph. At that speed I get just under 50mpg, If I drop back a little in speed, the mileage goes up pretty significantly. I used to ride a GZ250, and yeah it got 70mpg, at 55-60mph! The two times I had it on a longer trip and tried to run it faster the mileage dropped way down to about 55mpg and it certainly wasn't averaging 75mph, might have hit 75 going downhill a few times but I couldn't even maintain 65 going up most of the hills on I-75 between Chattanooga and Atlanta. Sometimes it was all it would do to run 55 up those hills, so those type of comparisons are apples to oranges. I really like my Vulcan and if I drop back to 65 I've gotten as high as 58mpg, but I just feel like I'm gonna get killed out on I-75 going that slow, I mean everybody is blowing by you! I just ordered a new set of gears as well, same as you plan to try, the 17/40 (2.35:1 ratio). I wouldn't have gone that route until the scootworks belt drive conversion was pointed out to have an even lower ratio than that (not much), but since they felt comfortable specifying that as their final ratio, I thought I'd give it a try and see what I thought. It should only drop my rpms about another 250-300 at 75mph, but that might gain me another 5% in mpg (2-3 mpg). I got so used to the GZ being a slow starter that the Vulcan seems to have way more than necessary out of the blocks anyway and like I mentioned, I spend most of my miles at highway speed. Since peak torque and hp seem to be reached on the Vulcan around 5500 rpms and that's about what I'm turning at 75mph now, I think it should be okay.

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Triangles
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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby Triangles » Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:09 pm

burkbuilds wrote: Since peak torque and hp seem to be reached on the Vulcan around 5500 rpms and that's about what I'm turning at 75mph now, I think it should be okay.


I was thinking the same thing. I usually go 70-75 and do a lot of freeway as well. I figure the Vulcan 500 has 6 gears it would be really nice if 6th was more of an overdrive or freeway gear.

I still have my trusty GZ250, so I know exactly what you mean. It's flat as glass up here in NW Ohio, so hills aren't a concern. Please keep me posted as to what impact your gears have on mileage! Either here or by PM.
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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby burkbuilds » Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:42 pm

I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and swap the gears now, or wait until I need a new chain, trouble is, my chain has not "stretched" much yet and probably has a lot of miles to go before it needs replacing. I've only had to adjust it once in 11,000 miles and only about a 1/4 turn on the adjusters then to get it back in specs. I've always heard that you should change chains with new sprockets, but if the chain is in good shape, even after 11,000 miles, what are your thoughts? I'd really rather not spend the money on a new chain right now, especially if this one has another 10-20,000 miles in it. If I inspect my current sprocket teeth and compare them to the new ones and there's not a noticeable difference in shape would that be a good indicator that I could swap them and still use the existing chain or am I courting trouble doing that?

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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby Triangles » Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:34 am

After investigating further, It doesn't look like the EN500A's belt would have enough clearance to put it in an EN500C. I could be wrong and if I am some body correct me.

I measured about 5 cm from the transmission case to the outside edge of the pulley on the EN500A. As you can see from the second picture 5 mm would interfere with the frame on the EN500C assuming I could find some way to affix the pulley
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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby burkbuilds » Wed Feb 17, 2010 12:52 am

From your pictures you appear to be correct. I'm wondering how scootworks gets a 1 1/8" wide belt in there then? It could be that they are using a pulley with an offset back towards the inside. They apparently have to modify the center of the pulley to give clearance for the threaded nut to go on as well.

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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby Triangles » Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:53 pm

The OEM belt is just under 1 5/8" wide so I'll assume its 40mm wide. I'd be willing to bet that the narrower belt from scootworks is probably the widest belt that will fit the newer vulcans
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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby kawboyCAFE » Tue Mar 23, 2010 12:02 pm

i know they are a little messy, but i have never had problems with chain drive. some people do apparantly. i dont have to adjust like some people do for some reason. i usually just spray chain wax on it every 500 miles or so, and adjust it about every 2500 - 3000 miles. maybe i have just been lucky so far, dont know. i wouldn't mind the belt conversion, but thats alot of bread for a belt and 2 pulleys. i was thinking about converting the older belt setup until i looked at those pictures. you can get the older pulleys pretty cheap on ebay, but i guess a good deal doesn't matter if it wont fit. anyways, ineresting and informative thread guys.

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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby Triangles » Tue Mar 23, 2010 1:26 pm

My philosophy is to have as little maintenance as possible.... I'd rather be riding than doing maintenance...... now if they could just figure out how to put hydraulic self adjusting lifters on these engines...... no more pain in the ass valve adjustments every 6k miles. That would practically narrow maintenance down to just oil changes.
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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby kawboyCAFE » Tue Mar 23, 2010 1:44 pm

yeah, the valve adjustments do look like a pain. when you did your first one, what was your mileage, and how bad were they. i was contemplating just wainting for the 6,000 mile mark to do my first one. let me know please. sorry, hope i'm not hijacking the thread here. :oops:

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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby burkbuilds » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:37 pm

I did my first valve adjustment at about 2900 miles. That's more than the 500 the owners manual recommends, but a good friend who spent years as a service manager for a local dealer told me that it would take 1500 miles minimum to "seat" the valves and I might as well wait until then to adjust. Only one was "at the edge" of specs, the other's were fine, but I'm glad I checked and adjusted that one. The next time I had about 9700 miles on it and I had the local shop do it just because I was in a time crunch trying to get everything done before I went back to school, and they didn't tell me if any were out or not. I plan to check them again sometime this Summer. Even though it's a pain to do it doesn't really cost anything but my time to do it, and the bikes I've had always seem to start more easily after I've done the valves than they did just before I've done them. Maybe that's a way to tell if they are getting out, anybody else had that experience. Right before I've adjusted them I've noticed that I have to crank the engine over a couple of times before it fires off, after adjusting it hits almost instantly.

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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby burkbuilds » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:54 pm

Triangles wrote:
burkbuilds wrote: Since peak torque and hp seem to be reached on the Vulcan around 5500 rpms and that's about what I'm turning at 75mph now, I think it should be okay.


I was thinking the same thing. I usually go 70-75 and do a lot of freeway as well. I figure the Vulcan 500 has 6 gears it would be really nice if 6th was more of an overdrive or freeway gear.

I still have my trusty GZ250, so I know exactly what you mean. It's flat as glass up here in NW Ohio, so hills aren't a concern. Please keep me posted as to what impact your gears have on mileage! Either here or by PM.


Hey Triangles, since switching out to the 17/40 ratio here's what I've noticed. 1. I can't really tell any significant difference in the bike. I have noticed that on Powder Springs Road in the mornings, I've quit feeling the need to shift up into 6th gear at 45-50 mph and just leave it in 5th, so maybe that's a little different. 2. If there's a difference starting out I've compensated for it without being aware of it, maybe I'm on the clutch a fraction of a second longer but not intentionally or noticeably. 3. I haven't had any problems maintaining 75 mph on I-75 even on some big hills or getting a lot of air off of 18 wheelers so it's fine there. 4. What I have noticed is that my rpm gauge has dropped about 300 rpms at highway speed and 5. my gas mileage has gone up about 4 mpg combined highway/city driving and up a little more than that on straight highway driving. I already had the 17 tooth front sprocket, so my ratio change was not as significant as it will be for someone going from a stock 16/42 to a 17/40. That might be significantly, noticeably different than what I did.

I also installed the loobman chain oiler a few weeks ago and so far I'm pleased with that device. It's simple, just squeeze the bottle of oil a couple of times before taking off for a ride and gravity does the rest. I'm getting a lot less "sling off" on my rear tire than before and the chain seems to be getting good lubrication. I started out using the heavy gear lube 90/140 that I'd been using before, but I think I may try a lighter oil just to see how it does. Yesterday I rode 2 hours in a steady light rain between Chattanooga and Atlanta and I was glad that I could easily give my chain an extra shot of oil about half way down when I stopped at a rest area before heading on into Atlanta. So far so good, I'll keep you updated if it all falls apart or something.

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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby Triangles » Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:32 pm

Thanks for the update!
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Re: Scootworks Belt Drive Conversion

Postby vcan » Mon Sep 01, 2014 5:14 pm

I started using ATF for chain lube and it cut down on time spent on chain maintenance. It makes a nasty mess the first couple of applications but after that the chain stays cleaner and seems to require fewer adjustments.


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