I factored those costs in here: 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... Not the import duty though, I'm not sure what the threshold is for that. I did count the VAT on the shipping, I presume that's correct. Hopefully, if the business in question does get appointed as official distributor, we will at least lose the £12.00 handling charge. It will be interesting to see what they charge as their retail price though - prices do seem to have a habit of escalating somewhat as they pass West to East across the Atlantic. The margin should be the same as for Gotham Cycles.
Ducati 888, 916, 996, 748 95-99 Cam Belts, Timing Belts Made by Gates Powergrip | eBay £229.41 each :Wideyed:
and they've sold 7 - a very interesting number considering we generally need them two at a time. You can get 916 Bucci belts from Italian ebay for about a twentieth of this price. Can't help wondering if it's supposed to be £29.41 each... Ducati 888, 916, 851, 996 & 748 (95-99) Cam Belts, Timing Belts. Brand New | eBay
As gStrings is Android only, I did some rooting around on the web and discovered that Gates do a dedicated belt frequency app called Gates Carbon Drive. It gives a frequency even when you click your fingers, so should be very much easier to use than a guitar tuning app which is looking for a sustained note. No more sore fingers... It's easier to find if you do a search on the App Store for Gates Corporation
Checked out the Gates Carbon Drive app. Looks great. If I would have seen this I would have used it instead. I have the tank back on but will take off the horizontal belt cover to see if there is any difference in frequency between the apps.
Interesting exercise but would expect ease of use to be the only significant difference. A couple of hertz either way won't matter much, unless you weren't able to get an accurate reading that is.
Just tried both apps loaded on my mobile. Both were within 1-2 Hz of each other. Thumbed the belt 5 times and readings registered within 1% each reading. Switched back and forth a couple of times and same results. Ease of use: Both very simple to use but the Gates Carbon is about as simple as it gets; one button, one reading, and a pretty sine wave. If you can access both, do so. Always good to have a cross reference when doing something like this. For the non-Android users, the Gates app worked just fine.
Just to add a bit, I turned off the radio I had in the shop to get rid of any frequency noise. Also, if you are working under older florescent lights that have a magnetic ballast, they put out a 60Hz oscillation (North American power generation frequency. UK is 50Hz, no?). Turn 'em off and use a good old incandescent bulb trouble light or and LED. Also any small motors like fans, etc. 60Hz output again. The new electronic ballasts operate at much higher (have these in my shop) and don't interfere.
Hi, I tried the Gates Carbon Drive app with a cheap microphone attached to my iphone. I couldn't get any readings from twanging the belt?!? Plenty of readings from any other noise around. Not sure what I am doing wrong as i have done this setup lots of times before using a windows lap top. Also the app states 'Errant readings in excess of 100Hz are possible and should be discounted' . I am looking for 99Hz with the ExactFit belts so i guess that means this App should work ok. Is there any recommended software to run with an Apple lap top?
Only heard good things about the App, not used it myself as ever since I have been importing them I have been buying bikes that have just had them done and taking others off the road , but now I have stopped buying I will be doing so next winter
I persevered without the external mic and it worked perfectly. The lower inbuilt iPhone mic worked best for me. I was impressed by the consistency of the readings. I set the belts as close to 99Hz as possible.
