Piaggio Beverly 350 - THIS Sounds Exciting!

I'm not making an argument with you over belts. I value your experience-thats why I asked in the first place. I'm a 69 yr old mechanic & yes, I know stuff wears out, especially belts & you brought up the subject in a timely way, thank you. You used kilometers-trying for consistency so I stated in miles for no particular reason except that's my regular mode in America.
Pretty simple question-why do they snap? You tell me-if you happen to know.Are they crappy made, that particular CVT functions differently? You can answer with a question or you can answer the question, your choice:huh
I really(REALLY! as they are not a rubber mfg) doubt that Piaggio makes the belts and not being scooter savy,also I have no idea if that same belts used on other machines or not? Don't they all have similar CVT mechanism? - where the belt runs? Still wondering how much $ they cost & what job it is to replace for a skilled person in the middle of a long trip? Thanks for the response. FWIW, Id very much like to see/ride your country

They snap.. because of wear.. and they do so.. a lot sooner then
our local manual suggests it should. Simple as that.

I'd just keep an eye on it and wouldn't run it over 7 or so k miles.

just passed first service and hit 1K miles with no issues. best commuting ride i've bought, and has turned the mana into a weekender. may cancel the ctx preorder and keep the mana, now, or get a street triple...

My 72 year old riding buddy changes the belt and rollers every 15k miles. It is 70% Interstate riding. About $100 in parts. I changed the belts and rollers on my BV yesterday. Took about an hour of easy steady wrenching and I am not a tech.
Barry

Post Script,

He has about 55k on his 09 BV250 and has never broken a belt. His last belt looked great at 15k but measured just a smidgen narrower.

This is good news. I do my own wrenching too. I'm not overly worried about premature snappage. I'll check it to spec at the 6250 mark and if it is narrowing, hell - for 100 ducks, I'll just plunk a new one in. Easy as pie. 100 bucks/year for a new belt. Hmmmmmm…. I can handle that easy.

Already got 90miles on it. Broke it in pretty quick and it MOVES. I mean :eek1

I never thought it would move like this. Haven't hit top speed. On a flat, I hit 91-92 per speedo at WOT and it was still climbing steadily. On a fairly steep hill I was doing 85 mph speedo and still climbing SLOWLY. I figure an actual top speed of about .. eh … 85-90 mph depending on how much I weigh that day.

Passing is a breeze too. First scoot and totally happy.

As for the seat height someone asked about above - 31 inches … shorter than the vstrom, but taller than I thought it would be. Easy to handle though as I've got a 32inch inseam. And it is so well balanced that I can hold it upright at a stop for long enough not to get a ticket without putting my feet down.

Good thinking.

250 is different.

It'll do 100mph indicated, sometimes more!

A BV350 isn't a BV250 but....changed original BV250 belt at 9000 miles, as specified. Aside from it being not as shiny I could not tell it from the new replacement belt, no cracks, & within thickness parameters. I suppose I could have put it on some sort of stress test and see where it broke while doing the same with a new belt in order to compare - but then I'd have had to have bought two new belts. This time I am going to risk everything and move it up to 12,000 mile replacement intervals. I think I paid around $80-90 for the belt and roller replacements. That's less than a good chain, but then I've managed to get chains to 20,000+ miles.

I've replaced the belt on my Kymco at 11.250 miles.. the manual just
says "check every 4000 miles", no replacement mileage listed.

They usually last twice as much as the italian scoot belts, but also
cost twice as much so..

Just don't use Malossi Kevlar belts guys..

I replaced the belt on my Sport City 250 at 11,500 miles. Some signs of wear and very small cracks. It probably had a few thousand miles left on it but the recommended interval is 12,500. The mechanic at the Aprilia dealer said that he did see a Sport City with a failed belt. It had around 18,000 miles on it. The BV350 has a lot more power but I would hope it has a larger belt as well.

Belt thoughts: A belt that snaps is a different event than a belt that's worn narrower-that simple. Cortez suggestion to avoid the Kevlar Italian belt is helpful info-thank you for something useful. FWIW, in comparison my Kawasawki Mule(a slow moving 17hp UTV with CVT drive and pulling a heavier machine/loads at real low revs) the belt looks new @ 300+ hours and has no narrowing or cracking. I priced the belts anyway & found prices for $38 to $140+ for the same belts all made by a couple of the common drive belt mfgs in USA. I wonder how "generic" is the BV350 belt? Perhaps the cost or quality is found in one of the "regular mfgs" parts lines? Worth looking.
My interest was simply how much trouble to change & if it was costly or short lived. Seems to be answered, thanks.
I've still yet to ride one or even sit on it. My larger question for now is my short legs as I have 29" inseam. Sure, I can "ride them all" but nice to back pedal in a lot or on the roadside to not take a flying leap as it falls. Simply leaning to one side or the other isn't a solution measure. I seriously doubt that you can lower the suspension much on a scoot like lowering lings and front tube sliding on a MC? Shaving the seat would seem to be it???

It does have a 31in seat height. So at a stop light you'd likely have to lean to one side a bit or at least not be able to flat foot it. For backing up - it is so lightweight, you can move it around off the scooter OR back up while standing up (i.e. not sitting down but astride the scooter). Very easy to maneuver. I wouldn't want to lower it at all. Don't know if you could.

Manual recommends eni i-Ride scooter 15W-50 ... any synth 15W-50 will work I'm assuming. ... Not to make this on oil thread - don't want to get flamed. just want to make sure the eni i-Ride crap doesn't have 'magical additives' or what not.

On the "maneuvering while stopped idea", is what your saying that the rider can simply stand up while crowding forward toward the handlebars & walk the scoot back & forth? Thanks!

Manual recommends the oil that the Piaggio got paid to advertise at
that moment and for that market.

The viscosity is chosen with regard to operating temperatures for
your part of the world, so, unless there is a big chart in the manual
depicting that, forget oil type was even mentioned and talk with your
local shop about it.

Thanks Cortez - just never heard of the oil that was recommended. Wanted to make sure I can dump in pretty much any modern motorcycle oil. I'll likely go with mobil 1 15w50. I tend to like thicker oils and the temps here don't get too hot. Maybe a 15w40.

Anyway.

to Kantuckid - yep - just stand up and walk it about. Or hop off and move it around standing beside the bike ... er... scooter.

I looked through the forum and found this old thread. I think it's appropriate to bring it back as an encompassing thread about the BV 350.

The BV 350 is all I've been thinking about this evening.

The one I test rode was the matte black. Not my fav color but it looks really good in the sun. With 4 different colors available since it came out, I think it would be fairly easy to buy different body panels. I always liked the 2013 matte silver but I didn't like the red seat and red plastics. I think a front matte silver on the matte black would look good.

I prefer the White one.