SUPERMAX BELT DRIVES
Phil Ross, The Man Behind The Modern Belt Drive
Phil Ross of SuperMax Products has been involved with motorcycles for well over half a century. One day someone may write a book chronicling his event-filled life, but we are going to cut to the chase and talk about his belt drives. Phil had always been disenchanted with chains and wanted an alternative that would be strong and work well with little or no maintenance. First he approached Uniroyal about producing belts, but they weren't interested in working with small companies. Through a friend, he was directed to the Gates Rubber Company. In 1972, Phil headed to Denver on his gooseneck chopper and pulled up to Gates facility. As soon as he said "motorcycles", he had their attention. Gates engineers John Redmond and his associate, Don McCombre, showed Phil a poly-chain belt they were working on for snowmobiles. They were having problems with debris tearing up their belts. It was obvious that they had tackled the wrong market and Phil had the answer. The engineers at Gates agreed to help Phil if he would help them. Gates provided some sample belts and cut some teeth into a giant piece of billet aluminum. Phil machined it out and inserted a H-D clutch basket into the ring for the first poly-chain test. That basket probably weighed 20 pounds. They started out with belts constructed from No. 45 Kevlar cord, which weren't up to the task. Then they changed to No. 65 and finally ended up with No. 80 cord Kevlar belts, but they still experienced a few failures. At the time, they were unaware of the fact that the transmissions and the engines were not flat with each other, which was the primary cause of premature belt failure. Early on they noticed that the aluminum pulleys were wearing out way too soon. They tried hard anodizing them, but that didn't work well either. Then they tried steel, which was heavy, expensive, and still wore out. John Redmond suggested, "Why don't we make the pulleys out of a material similar to the belts?". Phil and John started experimenting with materials and methods to produce them. Finally, after many tries, they achieved success with polyurethane pulleys. They now had pulleys that wouldn't wear out and a belt strong enough to do the job. It was 1975 when they finished all the initial prototype work and testing. Next Gates and Phil attacked a rear drive just to see what would happen. Again he was rewarded with success. In august of '77 Phil rode his stroker test bike to Sturgis with the world's first working dual belt drive. In '78-'79 representatives from Gates took Phil along with them to pitch Harley- Davidson on producing belt drives for their production bikes. Harley needed to get rid of the noise from chains and soon realized that Gates Poly-Chain belts were the wave of the future - not just for motorcycles; many industries need a strong reliable belt. Now, Gates Poly-Chain is the Gates Rubber Company's flagship product. But all was not so rosy. In 1980 Harley put the Sturgis model into production before it was really ready to go. The primary covers were not adjustable, and there were lots of problems. The belt drive had been installed into bikes designed for a chain drive. The engineers found that what they were actually installing was more akin to a gear drive. Chains can take a great deal of misalignment, but belts will tolerate neither over-tensioning nor misalignment. Phil rode his dual belt shovel down from California to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and met with Gates and Harley reps about their problems. Phil and Gates were aware of the misalignment between the engines and transmissions with the Harleys, but the H-D people had no understanding of what these problems were. He met the whole gang at the front door. They were pleasantly surprised that he had ridden all the way from California to meet with them, and with dual belts on his bike. Phil was presented a table covered with broken belts. Eighty percent of them had side wear, and the rest appeared to have been kinked due to mishandling. Phil said to the Harley rep that they would have to align these bikes if they expected to have a trouble free drive. "His answer to me was, and I quote, 'This is a production motorcycle and we don't have any time to line them up'". To the horror of the Gates reps, Phil's reply them was, "If you don't want to line 'em up then you should put a chain on them." And that is exactly what they did. Truth be told, they have very few problems with the chains, besides the noise and the vibration. For Harley the rear chain drive was the answer. The center distance is much greater when you're not dealing with a clutch.

Phil Ross doesn't have to deal with these issues nowadays. He is content to produce his belt drives, polyurethane pulleys and parts made to order out of a small facility in Cottonwood, Arizona. He offers complete belt drive units in several designs, using his poly pulleys and also offers offset pulleys which allow late transmissions to be used with early engines. He is also able to offer his pulleys and baskets in a rainbow of colors. One advantage of the SuperMax poly pulleys is that they weigh a fraction of what a stock steel or aluminum pulley does. In a performance-oriented motorcycle, a reciprocating weight counts. For years Phil pondered how to provide his superior poly pulleys for all of the OEM pulleys and aftermarket rear pulleys that were being manufactured by hundreds of companies to match their expensive custom wheels. They were all made of aluminum and wore out at an alarming rate. Some squealed at birth, and some as early as 5,000 miles. When pulleys are squealing, they're not happy. After a lot of experimentation with methods and materials, he came up with a novel solution by providing a service: over-laying pulleys. Phil machines the teeth off of the worn pulleys, knurls the carrier and replaces the teeth with his indestructible poly tooth overlays. Customers ask, "How far will your pulleys go?" and Phil has to answer, "We still don't really know." Gates Poly Chain Carbon Fiber belts are the latest addition to SuperMax. SuperMax offers these belts for their primary drives only. Harley started using 1 3/16-inch wide Carbon Fiber rear belts when they went to wider tire sizes and needed to use a narrower drive belt. Carbon Fiber is extremely tough and truly the next generation of the Gates Poly Chain. If you have a narrow drive and a wide belt, SuperMax can narrow your final drive belt to the desired size to order. SuperMax also makes many specialty drives, including final drive kits for chain drive FXRs and FLTs, final drives for Sportsters and big twins, as well as super light tranny pulleys. Phil is always ready to discuss your belt drive needs, and he knows what he is talking about. - Kit Maira

Here are samples of
awesome SuperMax pulleys.

Sugar Bear     
13528 S. Normandie Ave   
Gardena, CA  90249
Phone/Fax:  310-768-4158  

sbearinc@aol.com