I’m hoping I can pick your brains to see if any of you have personal experience with drive belt failure.  I see in the Café that MMRanch had a belt failure on his Meteor.  I am very interested in any observations he made prior to his failure.  Any cracks or other defects noted?  The factory tech manual doesn’t provide much for inspection criteria.  Maybe some of you have a bit more to offer.

About 3 months ago, I inspected my belt during a routine service.  At that time, the belt had about 86000 miles on it.   I noted some unusual grey/white marks in 20 different locations on the belt.  Every place I saw a grey/white mark, closer inspection revealed a small crack.
This is a picture of a typical defect site.

This shows the depth of the worst crack.  It is the only crack that runs to the edge of the belt so it is the only crack that I can get a feel for the depth.

I haven't had a belt failure... yet. I can only give you my observations as to what might be happening.

Comparing the savage belt to others is going to be difficult. The savage belt is polyurethane/dacron vs. rubber/dacron that most bikes use. Our belt is basically a timing belt that depends on the lugs to transmit motion. Hence it does not rely on tension and excessive tension can damage it. Which is why most of us do not rely on the tension tool.

Because of the hard coating, don't bend or fold the belt tightly. This will stress the reinforcing fibers.

Over the years I've read several stories of belt failures and I don't think you'll be able to find a definite cause w/o looking several failures and knowing the history of each belt.

That crack could be an indication of localized failure that'll zip across the belt. Or it could last for many years. If the crack widens it certain cause for replacement.