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
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