today started out great  !

I went south out of camp on a twisty little road that was very entertainning .  It ended into  Senic hwy 64 that runs along the southern USA.
That was all good till I ran into a wall of rain at the top of a mountain ... so ... a quick "u turn" had me back on dry road in just a couple of minutes.
That same thing happened 2 more times before I finally got to the Dragon.  It rained while I had lunch there too !
Well , three other fellers was having the same problem and in just a few minutes we were old friends !  
So , an hour later the sun came out and I got to enjoy a double sided Dragon run on semi dry pavement !  
Everything was almost too good.  It was about time to return to camp to see Dave and Batman ... so off I went to enjoy a Skyway ride in the late afternoon.   Well about a mile before I got to the entrance to the skyway ... I let off the throttle for a downhill curve and as I rolled back on the throttle there was nothing but empty rpm's  
The belt had broken !
Dave and Batman came and picked me up and I'm back at camp now with a friend comming tomorrow ... but ... In the days before cell phones  what a mess that would have been !

Good Morning Lancer  

The RE 350 Meteor is the fun bike (LS650-Type) for off interstate travel ,
The 650 Super Meteor (Big Brother) is the anywhere any-speed Bike.
A ride to the Dragon is a FUN RUN for the 350.

On the 650 Belt thing ... no ... The 650 has the   "Gates Poly Chain Belt"   that Harley uses on it's "Beast-Machines" (Gates 14MGT-1890-20) belt.  

When I bought the belt system for the 350 the only thing available was one from India that was a "special order run" from Gates.  It's 11mm pitch instead of the normal production 14mm or 8mm pitch."
Also the front pulley is smaller than the Savage pulley or any of the Harley pulleys.
.  So the belt has to bend more and it must have got tired of bending ?
Gates regular belts are either 14mm or 8mm pitch , 14mm being normal for Harleys.  These can be ordered from ebay or  any auto parts stores in the good old USA.
A couple of years after I bought the 11mm pitch system , a different company has started offering a belt system for the Enfield 350-J family of bikes that uses the Gates 8mm belt.   Well the 8mm belt can bend easier and also this other company (RSTech) uses a larger diameter front pulley.  So , now that the bugs have been worked out of things ... I'll get the 8mm pitch belt system and see if it last more than 20,000 miles  ?
I'm too lazy to keep a chain oiled and adjusted so that's my plan for now ... if I get suspired again then I'll just have to get un-lazy and learn how to take care of a chain again ?  

None of the Enfield's come from the factory with a BELT DRIVE SYSTEM ... yet .  

I hope you and Paula are having a Blessed day and some ministry opportunities come your way today !  
....................................

Dave  , I owe You and Batman BIG for the ride .  
So
If your ever in a similar situation  ...   all you got to do is call !   I can't show up with an enclosed trailer but , I leave the ramp in the open bed of the truck all the time !  

Batman and I left this morning (Sunday), and we are now home.....and my bike is washed, dried and put away!

Our Thursday ride was good.  We rode up the Skyway from Tellico Plains and things were dry - but when we got to the other side the roads were damp from a passing shower.  From there we rode the Dragon on dry roads.  We headed up northwest to an area just north of Tellico Village as Bruce has a client who is looking to buy a lot up there and build a house.  We got into a rain storm and I discovered my old rain jacket is no longer waterproof.  We had about 15 minutes of rain and then wet roads for a while.  We were going to head south toward Tellico Plains - but weather radar showed a huge storm was over the campground.  We waited about 45 minutes and then headed home on wet roads.  We got to Tellico Plains and at at Senior Lopez and had a great meal.  It was a good morning and we had a nice ride - with only the evening being wet.

On Friday we washed off the bikes and headed south on 315 to 30 to 60 and rode through Copper Hill on our way to Suches.  We rode Blood Mountain and then headed north and ate at a nice BBQ place, then headed back south and did Wolf Pen Gap.  Then we rode north on 60 to route 68 and back to Suches.  The day would have been completely dry if we had turned to the campground when we reached Tellico Plains - however we went to the ice cream place by the river and had a nice ice cream cone.  When we headed to the campground we discovered a big storm had passed through and go the roads soaking wet....however we didn't get rained on.

On Saturday we headed north on 360, 411 and 72 and then we rode Happy Valley over to Townsend and had lunch.  While we were eating a rain shower came and got the roads wet.  We decided not to go through the National Park - instead we turned back and rode the Foothills Parkway back to 129.  We say 2 police running radar on the Foothills, and 2 on the bottom of the Dragon.  We rode the Dragon and it was dry and fun.  We headed down 28 and as soon as we got to Fontana Village the rain hit us.  It was raining until we got to Robbinsville, then when we started up the Skyway the rain stopped - bu the roads were still wet.  Halfway up the Skyway the roads got a bit drier - but as we reached the top it was wet and foggy....sometimes we could not see more than 100 feet!  We made it down the other side and the roads were dry when we got to Tellico Plains - we headed to Senior Lopez and celebrated the clear skies with great mexican food and a margarita!  We returned to camp with dry roads and wet clothes!

We had a good amount of riding in the dry every day - but rain events in the afternoon/evening hours.  We really got a lot of riding in on dry roads - but rode home on wet roads every day.

Wayne at Cherohala Mountain Trails told us that June was a washout and there was very little riding possible - and July has not been much better.  The future forecast shows a 50-90% chance of rain nearly every day!  It may not rain all day - but at some point it is going to be raining somewhere.  This is a very wet summer this year!

MMRanch wrote on 08/03/25 at 19:20:27:


It is pretty amazing that your belt broke in a place where you had cell phone service.....and that we had service at the campground and got your call.

The entire length of the Dragon is without cell service, and the cell service at the campground has a very weak signal - often my phone had "SOS" only where the signal strength is displayed.