I inadvertently caught some fabric between my gates timing belt and one of the CDX sprockets while putting our bike into the car. Before I realized it, the belt had shifted off of the center track. Not much force was used, I run our belt at pretty low tension, maybe 40 Hz when strummed. The belt only has about 4000 miles on it and has been trouble free. I know rolling a belt off the sprockets is a big no-no, so I replaced it with my spare. I closely inspected the belt and can’t see any evidence of even the slightest damage. In fact, other than a little faded, it looks new. Should I keep it as a spare and risk a dangerous break if I ever need to use it, or just throw it in the bin now?

That’s a tough call. We had a stick thrown up under the belt which rolled off the sprocket. We had no choice other than to roll it back on under tension. We’ve been using it for a season with no issues, but I inspect it before each ride.

In the end it comes down to your comfort level. The reality is that almost, if not everyone on this forum doesn’t know, and if asked, Gates would recommend replacement.

Thanks for the reply. You’re right that no one really knows, but your experience with the stick helps me feel better about keeping the rolled off belt as a backup spare.

Thanks. I also am set up for fairly easy roadside belt replacement, but my fear is that if the belt has been weakened such that it might fail catastrophically, that would most likely happen while we were hammering up a hill out of the saddle, thus probably causing a crash. In 13 years of tandeming I have yet to put the bike down, and I’m nervous that once I do that my wonderful stoker will be reluctant to get back on the saddle.