Is it time to do the "Timing" belt

[Mikie'sST1100]

My 1995 ST1100 has approximately 42,000 miles on it. The bike was originally sold new in Cleveland OHIO and by the year 2000 it had moved to the suburbs of Chicago. I purchased it in 2003 with about 11,00 miles. The bike is adult ridden and hasn't been hammered to death. The climate where we lived in the suburbs of Chicago had above normal humidity, so drying out is not an issue. We have now moved to Santa Fe, NM and have only been here a couple of months. My wife and I are planning to do about 1,000 miles in Colorado this coming August. Routine service and new tires are a must before the trip. I have a good friend that works for Honda (in fact he is the second longest employee in Honda Motorcycles) and talking to him today he said that in my case, the age of the bike is more important than the mileage.

Any, thoughts on this?

 

[DeanR]

Timing belt is probably just fine, based on most peoples' experiences here. There's the little inspection port, but that doesn't show you a whole lot.

 

[Uncle Phil]

I just replaced the original timing belt on one of my 1997 models that turned over 100,000 miles. It looks as good as the new one that was put on.
It was the same way on the other two - no replacement until 100,000 miles.

 

[Mikie'sST1100]

Sounds good to me. Now I can spend the $$$ on new tires. I will post in that section to see what the new "hot setup" is in black doughnuts!

 

[Bush]

Sounds good to me. Now I can spend the $$$ on new tires. I will post in that section to see what the new "hot setup" is in black doughnuts!

Are you able to do some minor work on the bike yourself? If so, you could take a look at the belt for peace of mind about your decision. You need to remove some plastic on the left side of the bike in order to get to the cam reduction cover. Removing that gives you a decent view of the belt.I wouldn't classify it as a "little inspection port", as Dean mentioned.

 

[Oldbikefixr]

I will second Uncle Phil's comments. I bought a 1991, just 17000 miles, parked garage queen for 20 years. I went through the entire bike, including the timing. The belt was fine, same as the new replacement, no evidence of wear or stretching. Even the markings looked new. If I'm not mistaken, the Honda manual says 90000 mile replacements. Given similar comments from members here, your belt should be good for at least that. But.....old bike.....peace of mind.

 

[dwalby]

I don't recall anybody having a timing belt that didn't look brand new, even after 20 years.

 

[Bush]

The only failure I can remember seeing, on this forum I believe, was a timing belt that was only half as wide as it should be. Half had been worn off by some defect in its path of travel. Luckily it was caught before it broke, but it looked like a tangled mess of spaghetti.

 

[ESB]

I changed the Timing Belt on my '91 at about 100,000 miles! ( 6-7 yrs.)
Old belt was in perfect shape !!
Couldn't blieve it. Honda factory Part No. was worn off - Ats about it.
Never checked that 2nd. belt. Went 150,000 miles.

Based on Ur mileage, NO on replacement. Based on age - Do a VERY close inspection.

 

[KCJones]

...

Based on Ur mileage, NO on replacement. Based on age - Do a VERY close inspection.

If mere time can cause them to fail, we're all in trouble... 'cuz even if you get a "new" OEM belt to replace it, it was likely manufactured many years ago and sitting in a warehouse since...

Come to think of it... Where do folks get 'em? (ST1100 in particular for me)? I should probably lay in a spare seeing as I'm only (!?) 60,000 miles from time to replace...

 

[DeanR]

Come to think of it... Where do folks get 'em? (ST1100 in particular for me)? I should probably lay in a spare seeing as I'm only (!?) 60,000 miles from time to replace...

I did Amazon ... Gates T325 Amazon likely best deal .. $38.27 at the time.

 

[Uncle Phil]

I got mine from Mother Honda so far.

 

[bikerdrumr]

I was just doing research before I posted my high mileage maintenance question and I came across this post. I have 97k miles on my '99. One of my questions was the timing belt. Looks like there's a case for replacing and for putting it off. Hmmmm.... Maybe at 120k? Maybe I can find the time to take the plastic off to at least check it out?

 

[Uncle Phil]

I replace mine at 100,000 miles just because Mother Honda says do it at 90,000. As I said, every belt I've changed looks as good as the new one.
However, if they go south, the engine is trashed so it's worth it to err on the side of caution.