little bits of rubber under rear fender area.

[fleetingyouth]

Hi All,

I recently cleaned my chain and inspected the wear of the chain, sprocket and other areas. I then adjusted the chain tension and put it all back together. since then Ive noticed a heavy vibration when riding . Its very uncomfortable at highway speeds for longer rides. I took a look at the chain thinking it was maybe to tight and if anything it seems loose. I also noticed little bits of rubber splattered on the fender area. I think its from the chain wear guard as it seems to be cutting into it just a little. I just wanted to check and see if there could be rubbing from somewhere else before I assume its just that. Also would a loose chain cause this constant vibration? It was loose before I adjusted it with no issues and I adjusted it tighter even though now it seems loose again. Could it have been too tight and then caused it to stretch? There is not major wear on the chain or sprocket everything looks good.

 

[SleepyC]

Did you adjust the chain with someone on the bike? You need the bike to be weighted to see the chain deflection. If you set it with no rider on the bike, when you ad weight it could be too tight.

 

[DirtFlier]

[Did you adjust the chain with someone on the bike?]

That's contrary to the procedure in the owner's manual: bike upright but with no one sitting on it.

 

[fleetingyouth]

So I did not do it with someone on the bike. I went with how the manual and a thread on the forum recommended doing it. That being said someone did tell me to do it that way so I loaded the bike and tested to see and even with a rider on it it doesn't change how loose it is.

 

[rippin209]

If the tire wasn't aligned properly or if the chain was to lose to begin with it would explain your situation. Did you rotate the tire when finished adjusting to check the tension in 3 or 4 places. Different areas of the chain could be tighter or looser

 

[Deleted member 5383]

pics of swingarm slider?

 

[flyinfree.00]

Owner's Manual says check it on the side stand. If using centerstand add 5mm to stated slack.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[fleetingyouth]

I did rotate the tire to see where there was more or less slack in the chain when I did my adjustment.

GreenBoy what are you calling the swingarm slider? where the tire axel joins the swingarm?

 

[b_rubenstein]

Slider, under the top chain run, close to the swing arm pivot:



If the chain was "chewing" the slider, the slider material wouldn't be on the underside of the fender; it would be in the front sprocket area. I think your chain is making contact with the chain guard. That would be due to something incorrect with where the chain guard is.

 

[SleepyC]

My friend Mark who is a Honda and Ducati master tech said the manual is full of BS (Sort of). If you don't check the slack with weight on the bike it will give a false reading as to where the chain is in regard to actual tightness.

If you are 150lbs your "slack" chain setting will be way different than a rider that is 250lbs. Hence to properly adjust the chain to the weight you are riding the bike, one must actually be on the bike.
Granted you won't set it to what the manual says, but if you know what a motorcycle chain should feel like slack wise, with the rider on the bike will yield a much better result.

The manual is in some ways is way off of what the actual techs do from my experience.

 

[670cc]

All this talk about chain tension whilst we're trying to diagnose stray rubber bits. Chains aren't made of rubber and neither are chain guards. What's the tire look like? Anything rubbing or jammed in there? If you clean off the rubber bits, does more appear later?

 

[Antarius]

That's normal.

It's rubber, and road grime, and chain lube, and rocks, and dirt, all mushed together and stuck to your inner fender. Nothing to worry about, totally normal. Ride on!

 

[Deleted member 5383]

avoiding all owners manual approaches on either of my bikes i compress the swingarm with a rachet strap so that its pivot center is perfectly in line with both sprocket centers and judge my chain slack there where the chain will be at its tightest. this method allows for non-stock sprockets and non-stock links, and rider's sag adjustments. really only needs to be done once unless one of those items changes again, because one can take a measurement once the swingarm is uncompressed and the bike is resting on its sidestand. then it can be referred to later.

 

[Deleted member 5383]

make sure what it actually is? i never have anything looking like that (as much as i can tell from the photos) under my fenders, just mud and sometimes road tar stuff.

 

[Wildfire]

My friend Mark who is a Honda and Ducati master tech said the manual is full of BS (Sort of). If you don't check the slack with weight on the bike it will give a false reading as to where the chain is in regard to actual tightness.

If you are 150lbs your "slack" chain setting will be way different than a rider that is 250lbs. Hence to properly adjust the chain to the weight you are riding the bike, one must actually be on the bike.
Granted you won't set it to what the manual says, but if you know what a motorcycle chain should feel like slack wise, with the rider on the bike will yield a much better result.

The manual is in some ways is way off of what the actual techs do from my experience.

Sorry for keeping this thread off-topic, but ??? This doesn't make any sense to me. If I have this wrong could you please explain?

Both a heavy and light rider will at some time or another use the full range of their suspension. If you adjust the chain to Honda's specs it will be not quite tight at it's tightest point. The suspension has the same range of motion and the requirements are the same.

Spring preload on the other hand would be drastically different on a bike set up for a 150 lb rider verses the one who is 250 lbs.


Back to the rubber bits and the shake; what does your tire look like? Did you loose a balancing weight?

 

[fleetingyouth]

I'll take a picture of the chain wear guard in the morning.
As far as I can tell there is no uneven or rubbing happening with the tire.
The bits of rubber def. are not usual mud, grease etc. I've ridden the bike for several years and this is new since the chain adjustment.
The tire had Ride-on in it so it's not impossible it's out of balance but I've had it in for over 5000 miles and the vibration started right after the adjustment. I rode the same 400-mile trip right before and after and it was very noticeable after.

I am also confused by the debate over how to adjust your chain and I clearly dont have the experience to say one way or the other. However I ride at 180lbs daily and then toss on a bunch of gear during the weekend for trips. occasionally my GF rides with me thats more weight there. So how does all of this affect the bike if you adjust the chain for just the riders weight?

 

[potter0o]

I'm interested in the vibration myself. I'm not sure how you adjusted your chain slack. Have you checked your alignment?

 

[Deleted member 1183]

I agree both with SleepyC and Greenboy. The manual is not always correct with regard to chain adjustment. I found out this many years ago and not just with Honda. Imho the safest way to check correct chain adjustment is as Greenboy suggests, to have the counter shaft, swing arm pivot and rear axle all perfectly in line. He achieves this with a ratchet strap and I do it by removing the lower shock bolt or similar, and then set the chain slack to almost zero in that alignment. I then check the slack again with the shock reconnected and the bike on its stand. The slack in that position is noted and used thereafter. It is generally a little more than recommended in the handbook

With regard to the original question, unless you can find anything amiss around the rear of the bike such as the edge of the tyre rubbing a chain guard or swingarm or hugger, then I suspect road debris.

 

[mtiberio]

stop doing burn outs! seriously, it looks like chain lube fling...

 

[SleepyC]

Sorry for keeping this thread off-topic, but ??? This doesn't make any sense to me. If I have this wrong could you please explain?

Both a heavy and light rider will at some time or another use the full range of their suspension. If you adjust the chain to Honda's specs it will be not quite tight at it's tightest point. The suspension has the same range of motion and the requirements are the same.

Spring preload on the other hand would be drastically different on a bike set up for a 150 lb rider verses the one who is 250 lbs.


Back to the rubber bits and the shake; what does your tire look like? Did you loose a balancing weight?

If the bike was riding on a highway, a 150 lb rider will probably be around 1/2" if not more higher on the swing arm angle as they don't have the weight to compress the non adjustable shock. The chain slack will be different than a 250 lb rider who will have compressed the shock that extra 1/2" plus. Yes the shock will be moving up and down, but for optimal chain wear you would want the chain slack set to the position of the swing arm where most of the riding will be done.

From Mark. "99.9% of current motorcycles shipped to the US are sprung for riders that are 165 - 185 lbs. The sag is set for that and the manuals chain tension is set to that. So if you are ANYTHING from 100 - 165 or 185 - 300 lbs you would do yourself a big service checking the chain tension while sitting on the bike."

OR... and here's the big OR... get a rear shock or spring that is tuned to your weight putting the bike back to it's "Factory Sag" THEN, you could use the manuals settings and be in the ball park.

We were just talking about this as I was adjusting my chain and I'm a 210 - 220 lb guy (depending on beer season) and the stock chain tension setting was not right for me at all.
Mark was the head Tech at Cleveland/Arkon Honda when it was here and he was the head Superbike mechanic at The Ferrari/Ducati Of Austin. I trust him over any manual.