the new vulcan 900

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jmillheiser · Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:23 pm

Only maintainance needed on my CX500s shaft drive is to change the oil in the drive unit once a year, the oil change takes 5 minutes and is super easy, the u-joint has a zerk on it and you just squirt some grease in there when you change the gear oil. As for greasing the splines, you just do that when you replace the back tire so about every 8000-10,000 miles or so, and that is easy as well, you can pull the back tire off a shaft drive bike in 5 minutes with no mess, much easier than a chain drive

jmillheiser · Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:24 pm

as for harleys breaking belts, those are probably modified. guys who are smart about hopping up their harleys normally convert to chain drive once they cross the 100hp/100lb/ft mark

ZooTech · #23 Unread post by **ZooTech** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:44 pm

paul246 wrote: Zoo Tech

The modern shaft drives are all, like the BMW, closed in and "sealed" from the weather. This includes the C50 you just mentioned, BTW. There is NO service interval that you keep referring to. The shaft can easily go beyond 60,000 miles before you have to even think of it. The tech experts will tell you that the only time they bother with the shaft is if they have another reason for disassembly, then they will check it and possibly clean and regrease. Just got off the phone with the Suzuki rep.

http://www.gadgetjq.com/driveshaftlube.htm

As per the shop manual I have sitting right here.

jmillheiser · Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:48 pm

thank you honda for the zerk fitting on my driveshaft. Im suprised nobody has tried putting a zerk on the shaft housing on the vulcan.

Honda was nice enough to put a center stand on the CX too which helps. Seems to be one of the drawbacks of a cruiser, no center stand

I have yet to ride a belt drive bike. I have ridden chain drive bikes and own a shaft drive bike. The shaft is decidedly smoother

Sev · #25 Unread post by **Sev** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:00 pm

Belt was smoother then chain, but my belt had 1/3 of the power...

jmillheiser · Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:07 pm

shaft is decidedly smooth, just have to get used to the slight delay in power delivery.

shaft drive and all my lil 500 will still hit 60 in around 5 seconds so it apparantly doesn't sap much power

ZooTech · #27 Unread post by **ZooTech** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:09 pm

jmillheiser wrote:shaft drive and all my lil 500 will still hit 60 in around 5 seconds so it apparantly doesn't sap much power

You gotta remember that your crankshaft and transmission both rotate the same direction as your shaft drive. You only have one 90-degree transfer of power. On a V-twin like mine, there are two.

jmillheiser · Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:14 pm

yeah that is the nice part about the sideways engine, power transfer is more direct when running shaft drive (iirc all transverse engine bikes run shaft drive)

paul246 · #29 Unread post by **paul246** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 1:22 am

ZooTech wrote:
paul246 wrote: Zoo Tech

The modern shaft drives are all, like the BMW, closed in and "sealed" from the weather. This includes the C50 you just mentioned, BTW. There is NO service interval that you keep referring to. The shaft can easily go beyond 60,000 miles before you have to even think of it. The tech experts will tell you that the only time they bother with the shaft is if they have another reason for disassembly, then they will check it and possibly clean and regrease. Just got off the phone with the Suzuki rep.
http://www.gadgetjq.com/driveshaftlube.htm

As per the shop manual I have sitting right here.

This is the first line from your "manual".

"This can be an expensive item if you have your dealer do it every 7500 miles."

Now, imagine all the money you will save if you lube it every 5,000 miles. Wow. Just think

I rest my case.