Old Can Ride
Active Member
Everybody rides different! Do just like the book says, over the limit, adjust.
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Question... Is there a rule of thumb on how often a chain needs to be adjusted? every 8000 miles at oil change time? more frequent? Curious Noobie here.
Darin
The recommended replacement for my 2002 HD Sportster was 50,000 miles, which is why I used that figure. I think the figure is even higher now (for HD) Of course, rocks, debris, riding style, etc. will affect the lifespan of the belt.
My 2003 Sportster belt broke at 14K miles, after 10 years. I had it on a dirt road only once about 5 years ago.
Looking at Beemerphile's first picture, I see he uses a product that I swear by. Dupont Degreaser, cleans your chain great like many other products do, but it does not destroy the x or o ring rubbers as a lot of other products do. Can be purchased at most Wal-marts.
When I read what he wrote, I read that I'm supposed to put a tape measurer on the chain and pull down and then look at the 2" mark.
What, exactly, does THAT tell me?
I measure slack at the middle of the chain on the bottom.
1. put a ruler on the ground and note where the center of the chain bisects the ruler
2. put the bottom chain up until it stops. Note where chail bisects ruler.
If you don't think it makes much difference, don't bother. I do it in that manner to be rigorously correct. Maybe because I am an engineer with a pharmaceutical background. Maybe because I am a total doof. But that is what I do. The two components of slack that I will be including that you will not are the contribution of the upper strand at rest and the difference in the chain being pulled to a point vs. hanging in a chord. If you add those two together and think it not to matter, then have it your way. When the bike is under power, there is no catenary sag in the top strand. It is pulled tight under power and the full amount of slack is on the bottom strand. If the bike is idle in neutral, sag can be anywhere distributed between the upper and lower strands. I can rotate the tire forward and put more slack on the top strand or I can rotate it backwards and put more on the bottom strand. It doesn't all automatically fall to the bottom. How do you know how much of it you are comprehending in your measurement and how do you know that it will be consistent each time you measure it?It moves up like that about 30-35 mm. It doesn't move down much at all, so I don't see the point of pushing the bottom of the chain down toward the ground.
That is your starting point. You pull down because at rest there is some catenary sag in the top strand. By pulling down, you are bringing that to the bottom to use it as part of the total slack in the chain. As far as the 2 inch mark, you can use any handy point as your basis. You are just looking for the change from that point. The reason I hook the tape on the chain and look for the move in the basis point is that it can be done more accurately that way. If you are moving the chain up and down and trying to measure the deflection, there is an opportunity for parallax error in how you are looking past the chain to the tape. If you start with the tape hooked to the chain and your thumbnail pointing to a full integer number (2", 3" whatever) then it is easy to tell what number your thumbnail is resting against after you raise it. You want it to read + 1-3/8" from where it started.
The middle of the bottom strand is the correct place to measure. The two points I would add are: (1) To forcefully push down and pull up so that you measure the full slack of the chain. It is incompressible. You are just getting all of the slack into the measurement. And (2) that I can move my head around and change where the chain appears to bisect the ruler. If I have a thumbnail against the number scale, there is only one reading.
It doesn't all automatically fall to the bottom. How do you know how much of it you are comprehending in your measurement and how do you know that it will be consistent each time you measure it?
(2) that I can move my head around and change where the chain appears to bisect the ruler.
The easiest way that I have found to gauge chain deflection is to pull the chain down firmly with a tape measure and index the tape on some even number. Here I am using 2 inches as the lower point. Holding the tape measure in a steady position, lift the chain up with your free hand and notice the new tape reading. This gives you the full range of deflection. In this case, the correct 1-3/8".
Owners manual says check on side stand with no load on bike. That is what the spec is based on. Will be different measurement on center stand.
Owners manual says check on side stand with no load on bike. That is what the spec is based on. Will be different measurement on center stand.
Pushing down and up gives me 1.5 inches of travel. (yes, 1 3/8 is the spec.)
I'm listening to the "Muisc Row Show" from Nashville while we eat dinner, and after, I'll put DuPont chain lube on.
I saw somewhere the NC spec requires .75 to 1 inch of chain slack, which seems awfully tight to me. Can someone comment on this?