Leaderboard

You post in the new members area and just say a littleabout yourself. People never realise that this forum covers the pretty much all the main land masses worldwide. So saying where you are. What your bike is and your skill level make a big difference. For yours. My guess is your battery is goosed.

I reckon chain maintenance is one of the things that put people off having a bike, that and the possibility of a visit to A&E, The question has been asked so many times that you would probably get plenty of information from the site by carrying out a forum search for ‘Chain replacement’ or just ‘Chain’ There are a few ways of checking that a chain is worn; from checking the length of it stretched out over a given number of links compared to the same length measurement when the links are compressed and the difference of these measurements can be used as a ratio to calculate how badly the chain is worn. The physical condition of the chain needs to be looked at for damage/wear to rollers, chaffing of the side plates corrosion, stiff links and wear to the rivet heads, also the chain needs to be checked to see if there is too much side ways movement against the side plates, also the graduated lines on the swing arm of the bike or the notches on the chain adjuster cams give an indication of the amount the chain has stretched, people use a combination of these and experience to judge when they need to replace the chain the correct techniques for these types of inspection can be found with research via the net, A point to note is that the chain and sprockets wear each other out; a new chain on a set of new sprockets will wear themselves in together and last longer, a new chain on worn sprockets will wear rapidly to match the condition of the sprockets and will also accelerate the wear of the sprockets to match the chain, It is considered good practice to change the chain and sprockets as a set, but you can find that if the sprockets are ok and not too badly worn a pair of sprockets can last for the life of two chains, some people use two chains to one set of sprockets, but not normally the other way round, Also a chain is a heavy piece of moving metal with a lot of inertia, so if a chain is worn and snaps or jumps a sprocket it has to go somewhere and that is normally straight through the engine casing or wrapped around the rider’s leg or locks up the rear wheel resulting in a crash, or if you are a lucky so and so it flies off the bike and lays on the road like a forlorn snake, so taking a risk with a dodgy worn chain set is a risk that can hurt, On my bike I don’t use an ‘O’ ring chain, I use a basic 428 chain and a split link, so the care and cost of my chain is minimal, I just take the chain off the bike once a year clean the chain in paraffin let it dry and let the chain soak in some melted chain grease, lube the chain every week or so or after a particularly dirty or wet ride, this type of care has allowed the chain to last quite a few thousand miles, as to the chain itself, I buy any chain of the correct size/type from any relatively reputable manufacturer, then buy sprockets of the correct size/type to match, total cost for a sprocket chain set for my DT has cost around £20 give or take, maybe just over £25 if I cannot reuse the locking tabs, Bikes which are more powerful and are used at higher speeds routinely have chains and sprockets that are manufactured to higher specs and with better material qualities, these chains are often ‘O-ring’ type chains that have lubrication built into the chain rollers these chains require a different type of care as the condition of the ‘O-rings’ needs to be maintained to keep the built-in lubrication in situ, so on these chains lubrication is applied externally to lubricate the contact interface with the sprocket teeth, chain rollers and side plates, these bikes often better to change the chain with the both sprockets as the chains and sprockets cost a lot more and last longer when changed as a set. The cleaning fluids and lubrication need to be chosen as per the chain manufactures recommendation, this is because the ‘O-rings’ can be chemically damaged with some cleaning/lubricating fluids. These chains can have a soft link that needs to be riveted to join the ends of the chain, and some times people even remove the swing arm to remove the chain without splitting the chain so it can be refitted, As to adjusting the chain and the amount of free play / chain slack required on a suitably adjusted chain this is normally stated in the owner’s manual for the bike, however I adjust my bike chain to give about 1.5 inch of free play up and 1.5 inch down movement from what I judge to be the centre of the chain on the longest (normally the lower run), for motor X or off road bikes with large suspension travel they have loads of free play in the chain because of the wheel movement but they often have rollers or chain guides that control the chain tension , I then sit on the bike to check the chain does not become tight as the suspension is compressed and then check that the chain will not rub anywhere on the bike that it is not supposed to, such as the swing arm or the chain guard, I then look along the length of the chain and check to see that the chain follows a straight track from the rear sprocket to the front sprocket and that the side plates of the chain engage the teeth of the sprocket without rubbing on the chain side plates excessively, as a final check I measure the distance of the rear axle on either side of the swing arm to confirm that the centres of the axle are the same distance from the end of the swing arm on either side, a single sided swing arm is slightly different, Disclaimer: This is pretty much how I care for the chain on my bikes others will have other probably better suggestion and will no doubt have better and easier methods of chain set maintenance, some will also probably tell me I know nothing and am talking out of my arse. So I would read all suggestions ideas do some net research and use the best of the solutions that suit your situation, I am now gonna hide and go back in my cave and wait for the negative replies, Hope this helps