I seemed to have opened a can of worms here with a number of thoughts and some really sound advice from both sides of the Atlantic . After much calling around and a direct phone call to Germany I have sourced OEM belts at £102 all in for the pair after exchange rate. so a huge saving. They also have non oem Dayco belts but I think I'll stick to ducati branded. Excellent service from the guys across the water .
I didn't want to offend anyone either but paying too much for simple maintenance parts was hard to accept! If you are travelling to the US and have someone you know there, get them to pre-order a set of belts for you and throw them in your suitcase on the way home. Rub a bit of dirt on them, put them in a plastic, call them used. @Pavey, when in Vancouver, check out these guys: www.baysideperformance.ca/ Good guys and will sell for less than list price.
i got my last set of SS belts from Stein Dinse and looked to get some for the 999 from them but their price for 999 belts didn't seem much different from UK sources by the time you added in shipping. I concluded this was because they could sell the SS belts branded as Gates but the 999 belts were only available as Ducati branded. I'm confused by the price of £102.00, the price shown on your screenshot is 78 euros 60 cents per belt plus shipping. I make that closer to £120.00 for two belts without the shipping. Still a useful saving though.
Sandbar composites have dealings with CaCycleworks but don't stock ExactFit belts. If someone patient wanted to place an order with them for some belts that could be sent along with Sandbar's next order, I'm sure that could be arranged. Shipping costs would then be much reduced and the handling charge eliminated.
I'm glad you did. Until a couple of years ago 2v belts were around £40/pair whilst 4v belts were around £90/pair and it was often asked 'why the big difference?' given that they are basically the same design with the 4v being just a little longer but hardly enough to warrant double the price. Ducati's response to the price difference quandary seems to have been to double the price of the 2v belts whilst also increasing the price of the 4v so that the difference is now not so pronounced - I don't believe that this is the belt manufacturer's doing, I suspect that they get little, if any, more than for a non-Ducati belt, rather it is pure profiteering from Ducati and is hardly endearing them to owners, particularly enthusiasts that buy the bikes for the bike rather than any 'lifestyle' image.
i have just been on ebay and a set of gen Ducati belts for £133 free post or a set of dayco £78.90 , the set on the bike that was fitted 3 years ago were after market ones and they did 5000 miles with no issues
I bought a pair of 2V Dayco thinking they were oe, the ebay seller had ducati logo in background of pic and nothing saying they were dayco. The tooth shape is different and a respected authority on here said they wear more than oe. I returned them for refund.
Ducati Superbike 999 R Bi/Monop (H402AA) (2005) : Dayco Timing Belt | eBay Genuine Ducati Spare Parts Cam Timing Belt Set, 749, 999, 998, S4RS, 73740124A | eBay
Yes, thank God I have some... :/ It's a nasty condition to have to live with and the ironic thing is that I've never even owned a Japanese bike...
I've dayco belts on both my Ducati race bikes and they've been hammered and are totally fit for purpose. I would be happy to recommend them. As for the tooth shape I didn't notice a difference. Would you entertain doing the belts yourself? It's really not that difficult and is hyped up way too much. There is a great video of how to do this on you tube by Chris Kelly. The harderest thing is belt tensioning but if you give it time and have the patience that's not insurmountable.
Did my belts last weekend using this video by Ducatitech. Excellent instruction! Had all fairings off anyway and was time. Took about 2 hours total. Only difference was I also marked the divider plate for the rear belt also 3 up from the main mark. Easier to see for no mistakes. As for tuning, I used an app on my phone called gStrings for guitar tuning. Just put in autotune, stuck phone mic end near the belt, and thumbed the belt like a guitar string. Worked perfect! Got that idea from another forum. gString video:
New Ducati 749 749S 749R 999 999S 999R Camshaft Cam Timing Belts Belt | eBay This works out to be a similar price to the Dayco belts from Germany, if not cheaper. £72.26 + £13.26 postage + 20% vat= £102.26 + £12.00 handling charge = £114.62 v £142.00 for oem The news may get better though. I understand that Ca Cycleworks are currently talking to a potential distributor...
You can order direct from California Cycleworks too: California Cycleworks, Inc. - Aftermarket Ducati Parts for Ducati Performance | ca-cycleworks.com Just look under their "Maintenance" section. They also stock the Fuji nuts. This is where I got mine plus other stuff.
Interesting... I too used a guitar tuning app with my phone but found this to be the trickiest part of the process as it took a lot of plucking to get a reading. If you found this app gave reliable readings easily that's great news cos I got a very sore thumb when I did it...
