Timbersled TKI Belt Drive 2017-2021 any reviews?

[ravenous]

The chain weight is pretty negligible when you think about everything you are turning in that driveline. I am skeptical that the difference is something a human could feel. That said - my buddies tell me they can feel a difference. I personally could not feel a power difference when climbing a hill back to back with the two bikes.

Yeah you can carry a spare, but you cant just stuff it into a box with other stuff bouncing around or fold it up. It needs to be handled with care. My spare chain is just at the bottom of my tunnel bag taking up very little space.

The greatest thing about having the belt drive on your kit is lording it over your riding buddies that dont have it, and telling them how great it is.
The truth is that it doesnt seem to make one shred of difference. I have a 2023 Aero pro with the QDT. Riding partners have the same KTM 450 bikes with Aero 3s.
We have traded bikes back and forth and all 3 agree there is no performance improvement. There are a lot of links in a snowbikes driveline, from the crank all the way back to the track. Gears in the transmission, a chain, another chain, and then the track. The tiny weight savings due to the belt is negligible compared to all this other stuff flying around. My spare belt cost me $280 bucks. Yikes. That gets you a few chains.
I like the fact that I dont have to lube it, or adjust it more than once.
I hope it continues to last.
So far its been reliable.

 

[cbc76am]

The throttle lag is greatly reduced and it rolls better on and off the truck. It's great. I've had a tki for 3 seasons, aro, riot, and riot 3. The belts are 80 bucks. Timbersled belts are like 250 or something dumb. Tom's using a bullet housing that adds rigidity to the drive line and has less deflection. Tom has 29,30,and 31 tooth cogs to tune your gear ratio. I'd recommend tki over the qbt ever time.

 

[ravenous]

The placebo effect is very powerful. The medical profession is very aware of it. It is real. It also applies to snowbikers. If you spend money on a belt drive or a magical ECU or whatever else, you are probably going to preach about how great it works, and actually be fully convinced of it. But the placebo effect does not trump physics.
Sometimes you will really have to use your imagination.

 

[cbc76am]

This dude ravenous doesn't have a belt drive obviously. he's not moved snowbikes around the shop and had the free spooling of a downhill catch you off guard with the belt when you panic for the brake once you've converted. As someone that's been on them for 8 years and had 6 kits, please understand that the belt makes a huge difference on the timbersled kits. Not in power to the track as one might perceive as placebo. It's throttle lag, it's freewheeling on a downhill, and it's rolling it around the shop or a ramp that makes the difference. You can tell the vibration is also less... but until that dumb chain slider on the primary drive is eliminated - not enough to consider that a benefit.

 

[ravenous]

You might want to read my previous post . I have a 2023 pro with QDT. This is my 8th snowbike over 10 years.
I have a little bit of relevant experience.
Honestly, we cant tell a difference.
But if you really believe its better, that becomes your reality, and thats awesome!

 

[cbc76am]

You might want to read my previous post . I have a 2023 pro with QDT. This is my 8th snowbike over 10 years.
I have a little bit of relevant experience.
Honestly, we cant tell a difference.
But if you really believe its better, that becomes your reality, and thats awesome!

Fair enough in your experience, I'm very perceptive, I'm tuning every last thing all the time on my kits, bikes, cars. Being an engineer is a blessing and a curse. I very much notice a difference with the belt. That said, a properly designed chain drive would be just as good, like the mtn top. No slider, no cog, direct straight zero play chain drives are fine also. It's just the timbersled chain drives that suck in my opinion. Getting rid of one of them is worth doing.

 

[Hawkster]

Been riding this tank for almost 20 years, there's one that I store for a friend that was purchased with a conversion to chain drive.
So when I throw a leg over one that I might ride once a year compared to mine there's a definite difference.
Everything else about his set up is like mine because I helped set it up.
I have absolutely no desire to go to a chain.
Chain is much higher maintenance
Creates more rolling resistance on or off the throttle.
If your in it for a few years do it, change skids like underwear, it's your money.

This belt has at least 8000 miles on and that's being conservative. That's going by 3 rebuilds and that's thousands of miles.
Just to be fair the bottom sprocket is a break away clutch .
Land hard she lets loose, rarely hear it chatter, gotta mess up bad.
It's also a 154 2.5 peak track and it also weighs 500 pds.
Good belt driven set ups are superior is my personal belief.

 

[Norma Stitz]

I can’t help but think that if belts were really so much more efficient then we would see them used in, I dunno, any level of motorcycle racing? my experience with them is limited, but I did drunk purchase a tki for my aro and have had a season on it. I can’t tell a difference, except in bulk. Several riding buddies also have them and we have seen quite a few failures related to this system, many of which required towing out. So, I’d save my 770$ if I had it to do over. YMMV

 

[byeatts]

The greatest thing about having the belt drive on your kit is lording it over your riding buddies that dont have it, and telling them how great it is.
The truth is that it doesnt seem to make one shred of difference. I have a 2023 Aero pro with the QDT. Riding partners have the same KTM 450 bikes with Aero 3s.
We have traded bikes back and forth and all 3 agree there is no performance improvement. There are a lot of links in a snowbikes driveline, from the crank all the way back to the track. Gears in the transmission, a chain, another chain, and then the track. The tiny weight savings due to the belt is negligible compared to all this other stuff flying around. My spare belt cost me $280 bucks. Yikes. That gets you a few chains.
I like the fact that I dont have to lube it, or adjust it more than once.
I hope it continues to last.
So far its been reliable.

As with all TKI designs they work very well much better system than any chain drive.