You can if you want. I inspect the drive belt every tire change and with 62,000 miles on my RM the best still looks perfectly fine. Personally I think the belt change interval for these bikes is more of a money making scam than anything that is wrong with the belt. Just my opinion. Dean

 

'14 Chieftain with 118000(+) on original belt...still looks good. I ride year round, commute to work, visit family in NC (I live in VA) and have been to Sturgis 4 times on it. (Pulled a camper on 3 of those trips.)
Keep a check on it and let it roll!

 

'14 Chieftain with 118000(+) on original belt...still looks good. I ride year round, commute to work, visit family in NC (I live in VA) and have been to Sturgis 4 times on it. (Pulled a camper on 3 of those trips.)
Keep a check on it and let it roll!

** UPDATE 9/15/25 **
Currently over 155000(+) miles...(Sturgis 7 times now. Pulled the camper on 6 of those trips.)
Belt still looking good.
Roll on!

 

Obviously, visual inspection drives the decision to replace a part ahead of the published maintenance schedule.
My 2016 Chieftain has ~58K miles on it.
I replaced the perfectly fine belt myself a few weeks ago.
The reason why I did the above is our manuals call for monoshock to be rebuilt at 50K.
This is a service that Fox manufacturing offers for $125 (for whatever reason they only charged me 90 but I'm not complaining).
After I mailed them the shock I inspected rear tire and found signs of cupping, not bad - but present, so the refurb service at 50K was spot on.

For that $125 fox (the OEM for Indian) replaces all the seals n bushings as to make the shock behave like new.
When you get it back it will NOT be repainted but will behave as if new.

Fox needs 10-14 days to turn around the refurbishment.
I took this idle/wait time opportunity to repack all the swing arm needle bearings and do any maintenance that even kinda might be needed in rear end of bike.
Ito replace the belt you partially remove right side muffler ( which is just a few 1/4" sized bolts) so you can un-scruew the drive belt cover and swap in a new belt.

Yesterday I finished all the winter maintenance I could think of doing.
Snow is melting off of the lawn, and rain this weekend to wash away the salt.
All next week is dry with temps in 40's and 50's.
For me, riding season begins Monday.

My advice is to wait for the winter when you too are at 50+K and do what I did.
Time will be on your side and job can be done for the cost of parts.

 

Have you ridden the bike for any distance yet since replacing the belt? Indian reccommends replacing the the front and rear sprockets at the same time. I was having noise issues with my 16 RM last summer at about the low 40k miles. It was a weird split second noise, on acceleration from a stop in 1st gear. And only in 1st gear. It almost sounded like a grind noise. Last summer, I replaced the rear wheel bearings, the rear sprocket bearings and cush bumpers and the noise was still there no matter how much I adjusted the belt. I then decided to replace the belt. That weird belt nosie was still there on acceleration from a stop but I also noticed a new constant noise kind of like a hum, so I changed back to the old belt after about 50 miles of easy riding. I'm thinking the humming was caused from the new belt running on the old pulleys. The pulleys do wear.

I had since,bought front and rear pulleys from ebay that were brand new (unused) takeoffs. Yesterday I pulled the old pulleys and belt and installed the new pulleys with the new belt. Adjusting the belt was the easiest it had ever been. Got her off the table for a test run. Low and behold, no more split second grind noise and no constant humming with the new belt. LIfe is good again 55K miles.

Now back to the lift for more pre-spring work.

 

My RM is currently at 52K and the tires have about 4K on them. I am likely going to replace the belt, and bearings at the next tire change just as a precaution.Should be around 65K then.

 

Unnecessary if it's not damaged, not showing signs of degradation, and has been properly tensioned and aligned during every 5k service as its supposed to be.

 

I replaced mine at 65k mi on my 2015 RM. It looked fine. “Abundance of caution.” We’ve got several riders who had bikes at or over 100k with zero problems. That all said, Julie got a “stone bruise” on her victory at 35k that required belt replacement.

 

100 K on my 15 RM and 60K on my 16 RM both have original belts, both look new.

 

Thanks for the feedback ride safe

 

Hm, I never got to 15mph in first gear ?!?!
15mph ~ 24kph/kmh.....I am in second or third gear already......

Maybe you hit the redlin already ?

Sorry, but couldn't help with that.

 

30k does not seem like much. But I am also not a believer in letting it go until it fails. Inspecting every tire change is a long interval. And even with inspection, do you want a failure on the road and have to be towed home, and sit for hours?

How many miles you should do a planned change, is the question. But I would rather do it over the winter, than after a break down, that ruins my vacation, late for work, ect. But again, what that number of miles is the debate I am sure.