One of those days....

Yesterday fired up the Honda Helix to pick up the wifey at work. I hadn't ran it in several weeks, but it started and ran great. Got to her work.. she jumped on and we caught the freeway entrance ramp.... cruise'n along at about 60mph.. and then.. a tremendous racket from underneath the bike.... engine still ran.. but I suspect the drive belt went toast.
We where already in the right lane and I pulled over as far as possible.. as I came to a stop.. right foot on dirt.. left foot on edge of the asphalt…. at this time... I heard the screeching of brakes.. in the mirror cars are swerving .. swap'n lanes..on the right a Ford Flex screams by us... ripping out heavy brush before it came to a stop... dirt and dust swirled around us.... driver jumps out.. ask'd if we are ok....
My Fruit of the Looms have exceeded their maximum capacity … I push the scooter some distance off the freeway.. that in itself was scary.. a friend lived a couple blocks away.... parked it... Saturday.... I'll trailer to my buddies shop. Updates with the " ugly ".... soon

Geeezzzz - glad you and Mrs. are OK.

What they found when the belt case was opened.

Shredded in fear from hauling two up on the freeway?
Belts and old don't get along well.
That "freeway stop" sounds super scary.

What were you thinking? You could have been killed ! Make her ride her own Helix ..
(kidding) That is very scary !

MaxPete said:

Geeezzzz - glad you and Mrs. are OK.

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+1

Just wondering how many miles on that belt and how many years?

Wife rides a GTV 300 and I try to replace belt and some other small bits in the variable speed drive around 8,000 mile which usually work out every other year. Belts always look good when removed but figure that is cheap insurance.

I didn’t realize that scooters are belt drive. Are they all that way?

Mailman said:

I didn’t realize that scooters are belt drive. Are they all that way?

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Bob, pretty much yes. All the "auto" scooters work with the belt system (unless you have an old 3sp Vespa).
They still have a centrifugal clutch system, however, the CVT is the part that is able to change the drive ratio when riding.
See here for a bit more insight on their operation and main components.

hotdog said:

Bob, pretty much yes. All the "auto" scooters work with the belt system (unless you have an old 3sp Vespa).
They still have a centrifugal clutch system, however, the CVT is the part that is able to change the drive ratio when riding.
See here for a bit more insight on their operation and main components.

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Similar to the CVT on nearly every snowmobile.

MaxPete said:

Similar to the CVT on nearly every snowmobile.

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Yeah I expect they would be very similar. Scooters are just better for me to draw comparisons with as snowmobiles are a bit thin on the ground in my neck of the woods....

hotdog said:

Yeah I expect they would be very similar. Scooters are just better for me to draw comparisons with as snowmobiles are a bit thin on the ground in my neck of the woods....

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Thanks for that video link Hotdog, it was very informative!