Serowbot wrote on 04/05/11 at 11:06:26:There is some variability in the method...
Personally,.. I don't do the 90' twist check...
I just make sure it has some up and down wiggle in the middle... about an inch up and another inch down...
As long as it can't jump teeth, it's not too loose.
Too tight, and it will chirp more...
Way too tight, and it will cost horsepower...
Actually in my case the belt chirps more the looser it is. Mine is set so I can twist with my thumb and two fingers to barely 90 degrees. With the rear wheel off the ground it shows that this is about right, as when turning the rear wheel, it spins completely effortless still. So that method is pretty much dead on. I waited and did this on a day, when it was about 68 degrees outside. Most everything in industry is calibrated at that temperature. I adjusted the tightness and alignment. Point is, that the belt is affected by temperatures with shrinking in the cold and expanding with rising temperatures. It also seems to affect how true it wants to run in the middle of the pulley. I aligned it running in the middle when it was about 68 degrees outside, and it proves to work just right. Especially now that it is spring time, with temperatures in the low 30's in the morning, and up to 75 degrees in the afternoon. In the morning the belt runs on the inside of the pulley. Around lunch time it runs more in the middle, and later in the afternoon when temperatures peak it runs towards, but not all the way on the outside. It works every time. Now every time I have to take the rear wheel off for a new tire or other things, I take my caliper and measure each side of the adjusters and write it down. When I put the wheel back in, I adjust it to the specs I wrote down, and it's dead on every time. No more adjusting for hours anymore. this also shows that the alignment marks on the swing arm are pretty inaccurate. One side is in front of the large marking, and the other side is behind it. When I first got the bike I used the markings and the tension tool and that just rewarded me with terrible squeal. The way I do it now minimized it to virtually no squeal most of the time, except on moist cool mornings for the first mile or so.