Chain on my bike needs adjusting (again!)

Adjusted a very very loose chain about three weeks ago. Riding to work today and heard the same rattlign i had about a month ago and realise the chain needs adjusting again.

Is it time for an new chain, sprockets???

If so what do people recommend and does anyone know of any decent garages in the Hgih Wycombe / Buckinghamshire area is i think i am getting ripped a bit by an unnamed Yamaha dealer in High Wycombe (West Wichkham road)!!!

do it yourself!

tightening a chain is not a hard job, what bike is it?

get a Haynes manual and/or go to the OMC!

and are you lubing it?

Sorry that wasn’t very clear.

I can adjust my chain (just about) - but does the fact that it has slacked off again inside a month suggest i need a new chain / chain and sprockets.

The advice on garages was in relation to changing the chain and sprockets (and a number of other things that need doing, brake pads, clutch cable, service to name a few).

Bike is a Yamaha FZ1N.

how many miles have you done on that chain/sprocket?

if more than 10k, you definitively need a new set. get yourself down to omc (they’ll also order the parts if you need), you wont get ripped off.

Mine started doing that and I kept adjusting it until one day it just popped off whilst I was filtering… lucky me it was low speed so I managed to pull to teh side and sort it out but after that I went straight to the garage and replaced it. Got a heavy duty one and sprocket so it should last me a while.

… and who told you that. You do know that the majority of good chains comes with a 12 or 13K mile guarantee. I have heard of a lot of people getting 20K out of their chain.

My bike has just hit the 12K mark and its still got the original chain from 2008. Its been tightened once yesterday and I have plans to get another 10K out of it. I do lube my chain every 500/600miles as recommended and it does the trick.

Normally get 17,000-18,000 miles out of a chain and sprockets on the Daytona which is a damn sight more than I got on a sump full of oil.:angry:

untill your chain looks like this

and your sproket looks like this your fine XD

Did you grind down that front sprocket or did you let it wear like that!

I know a despatch rider can get 50,000 out a chain thats well maintained . I have 18,000 on my superduke chain and since fitting I am yet to adjust it once and it looks like new . Its all down to the care with chains, look after one and you can darn near get the life of a bike out one .

Is there no way of measuring the amount of ‘‘stretch’’ in a chain?

You can get something like this for a bicycle chain - isn’t something similar possible for a motorbike chain? http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_categoryId_242558_productId_525659_langId_-1?cm_mmc=Shopping--Google%20Product%20Search--Bikes%2FBike%20Maintenance%20%26%20Tools%2FBike%20Tools-_-BikeHut%20Bike%20Chain%20Wear%20Checker&source=shopping#tab1

Micrometer will measure anything you like … YOu can usually get the figures of the net . I measured the stretch on the cam chain of project Kredit Krunch before I reassembled everything .

Speak for yourself - some things require a larger scale :wink:

On a serious note however, surely that is a the simple answer to the question ‘is my chain forked’ - just measure it & find out?

dan it was bad to the point wer it would just spin not my fault bought it light that then i was telling karleigh’s friend bertie i was just grind it down to re make a new sproket haha he started to go right into one lol

given that it keeps getting slack, if its also got some mileage on its probably time for a replacement. thats why of the ‘more than’ 10k question. :slight_smile:

Its normal for a chain to get slack. Called wear and tear. Just tighten it to the correct 1inch slack. Have you never thought that it might not even be the slack on the chain it might be the sprockets wearing thin.

The rule I tend to have is if the sprocket looks fine then the chain can’t be that bad (if there isn’t a lot of corrosion on it, there shouldn’t be anyway because of the chain lube). The main thing is that you don’t have a sprocket like Ross’ as that is dangerous. It can slip off anytime. If the chain is tightened and lubed correctly no reason why it should just snap. Plus if you ride your bike every day there shouldn’t be any major noticeable tight spots. The only slight tight spot on mine is the master link.

I accept the point that chains slack due to wear and tear but not two to three inches in three weeks.

I do about three hundred miles a week and clean and lube it every week.

Just looked at the mileage and the chain has done about twenty four thousand miles as it is the original so it is due a change going off what most people say here. It also seems that FZ1s are harsh on chains from what i have found today.

I have just adjusted it today i am going to change chain and sprockets on Saturday as it would seem to be at the end of its life as due to the amount it has slacked off in 3 weeks.

Thanks

Check your sprockets I bet they are totally fook’d. But yeah 24K I must say you have done that chain and sprocket set justice on a 1000cc bike lol.

Apologies if I have missed someone else mention this but I assume you realise a chain will usually have tight and loose spots along its length and it’s important to check the chain adjustment in several places by rotating the back wheel so you check the whole chain length.

Could it be a case that if you didn’t do this and you adjusted your chain on a tight spot. Whereby leaving the slacker areas too loose?

Either way, if you have so many tight/loose sections its time for the skip!!:cool: