Hadn't done my belts yet the 696 only had 8000km on it. Much debate on the way to do it. My father has a frequency meter (why, I don't know, part of a fancy oscilloscope) so that would be the way I would do it. I have read that a lot of the guys were were getting variable results with the 5mm (I thought it was 6mm ??? ) I've done belts on cars before and never considered it. Just let the tensioner do the work (I guess they were all spring tension units though) I'm going to keep this bike for a while so I might invest in a Hz meter (or just steal my dads ;D)