Battery strap broke - cost $450

A word of warning to anyone using the "factory"battery rubber battery straps. New or old. I had my own homemade straps for years and no problem. About a year ago when I was ordering some parts online I thought I'd treat myself to new factory spec battery straps. A few weeks ago on my way home I heard the worst kind of noise you ever want to hear on a Norton. After stopping I found the rear wheel didn't want to turn. I'm thinking motor or gearbox but after getting down on the ground I could see a a nice size piece of steel wrapped around the drive sprocket.

Short story - one of the rubber straps had broken in half and allowed the steel battery bar to fall down the gap between the frame and the battery carrier which was then carried forward by the chain and wrapped itself around the sprocket. I took of the chaincase cover to find a pile of alloy bits inside. That steel bar had gouged the inner chaincase. That's where the $450 comes in. So my advice - if you are using the standard battery retaining set up then junk it and use a couple of springs or even cable ties.

Bonus was that given I had gone that far I decided to install the MK111 style isolastics I had sitting on the bench for 12 months. The old rubbers came out without a problem and the new ones with in with a lot of effort but now it is so smooth.

The later-type strap work better. A pin through a loop on the oil tank side and a flat clasp that attaches to the hook at the opposite side. I replaced the rubber with a strip of EDPM roofing rubber, but a slice of old inner tube would work as well. I think I have one of those rubber-lined angle brackets in the bonepile somewhere....

Yeowch.

That's nasty.

Yup. I took one look at the "one step away from a short" type hold down my bike was missing, and fabbed one from an inner tube. Working great 20,000 miles later.

Ugly, sorry to see that. Mine broke similarly, but without the disasterous results. I've since switched to using one of these...

I damaged my inner case at the same place but that was with a wayward chain not a battery strap, I ended up putting a belt drive on and I cut the whole rear off the inner case around the damaged area and cut a few slots in the front of the inner case for air flow but still had a outer case cover on to look like nomal with it that way i could see how the belt was doing when running over the clutch pully I ran it like this for about 5 years without any problem, but ended up going back to chain primary after a few problems with the belt drive, I just got a second hand inner case off ebay that was in pefect condition cheaply.

Ashley