F800 Drive Belt Durability

I have seen references to toothed drive belts having a planned life of 40,000 miles, what have owners seen in actual use?

I noticed on Max's website that the belts and pulleys are pricey: $422 for the belt, $398 for the front pulley and $391 for the rear pulley. Are the pulleys supposed to be replaced with the belt?

Also, a few years back, I saw a reference to Buell changing their drive belts to a new specification that was more tolerant of foreign objects getting between the belt and the pulleys. The story mentioned that Buell's original belts would fail in short order if they picked up a rock. Has anyone with a belt drive BMW had a belt failure?

There is a lot of information over at www.f800riders.org/ that will tell you what people's experience has been with the belts. No major issues that I have seen.

The pulleys are not replaced, just the belt.

After checking the F800 forum, it appears that the belts may (or may not) fail quite rapidly if a rock gets between the belt and the pulley. Sounds like travelers should bite the bullet and carry a spare belt.

It also sounds like the interestingly named "Jerk Damper" gets replaced at the normal belt replacement interval. That's another $80 bucks for the front and an unknown amount for the rear (Max doesn't show the price).

It was disappointing to note that F800s have a reputation for rear wheel bearing failure. I thought that FD bearing failure was reserved for R1200 owners.