Chain life

[Bonez]

So when you guys say the chain last 40,000km's on its oem chain does that also mean that you never changed the sprockets too that they are also oem out of the factory?

Yip. Bought a bike new, did 52,000kms and sold the bike with the OEM chain and sprockets still on it.

[Taz]

Mmmmm shaft drive........

The Ducati doesn't go long enough to wear out the chain.......

I got 56000 kms out of my VFR with scottoiler and was still fine when I sold it.

[erik]

Yep. When replacing due to wear, never change just 1 of the 3 bits involved on your road/adventure bike.

I disagree with that. When I got the bandit, the chain had developed a tight spot but the sprockets were ok. So I replaced just the chain with a cheap non-o-ring chain and it's still on there now 40,000km later with the same sprockets.

[MSTRS:Me]

Very unusual, Eric. Do you know if the sprockets were replaced, but not the chain, just before you got the bike?
Chains bed into the sprockets and they wear together, so generally by replacing only one of the components, the new part places a strain on the old and vice versa, leading to accelerated wear on all.

[Gremlin]

17,000 and the whole set was knackered on a zx10

42,000 and the whole set was knackered on a cb900

both had scottoilers, the zx10 only had it from 10k I think, previous owner probably didn't look after it

[erik]

Very unusual, Eric. Do you know if the sprockets were replaced, but not the chain, just before you got the bike?
Chains bed into the sprockets and they wear together, so generally by replacing only one of the components, the new part places a strain on the old and vice versa, leading to accelerated wear on all.

I don't think they were recently replaced. I took photos before I replaced the chain, you can see some wear on the sprockets. I should take some more photos now for comparison, it might be interesting. Clearly the front is not a stock sprocket, so it must've been replaced sometime within the 48,000km before I got the bike. I'm not sure about the back.

[slimjim]

yes i've just got chain and both spockets replaced by the lads in karamu rd..total cost $319.00..bike has done total of 54000km thought that was good from new with same chain and spockets...gees should have keeped record on what the chain spray has cost of the five years...lol

[TOTO]

I just got a tight spot in the past few weeks.

My chain has done 43 000km (original chain). that should be a good life span for an ordiginal chain on a 2001 250 hornet ay ?

any taughts ?

[racefactory]

Umm what? Chain tight spots are perfectly normal- go look in any Haynes manual if you don't believe it. It's a normal product of the way a chain wears and is lubricated- both are never totally evenly spread. That's why if you properly adjust your chain you always find the tightest spot first and then take measurements from that.

It's how much the chain stretches on the bikes stretch marker that you should be paying attention to.

If we all replaced our chains when we found a tight spot it'd be madness at cycle treads...

[Bonez]

Umm what? Chain tight spots are perfectly normal- go look in any Haynes manual if you don't believe it. It's a normal product of the way a chain wears and is lubricated- both are never totally evenly spread. That's why if you properly adjust your chain you always find the tightest spot first and then take measurements from that.

It's how much the chain stretches on the bikes stretch marker that you should be paying attention to.

If we all replaced our chains when we found a tight spot it'd be madness at cycle treads...

Chains don't stretch either, rubber bands do.

[MSTRS:Me]

Umm what? Chain tight spots are perfectly normal- ....

If we all replaced our chains when we found a tight spot it'd be madness at cycle treads...

We call them tight spots, but actually 2 things happen to a chain when it is getting near the end of it's useful life.
1. Wear within the links leaves a loose spot where the chain has 'stretched' and
2. Corrosion inside a link stops it moving freely with it's neighbours via the pin that holds them together.
What we notice is a tight spot with a link that is out of line (because it flexes to a point that allows it to run around the small front sprocket, but won't rotate back into line when it is between the sprockets), or...
a 'tight' spot where the chain is actually still good.
Once any or all of these symptoms show up, it is best to be scheduling a new set sooner rather than later.

[Pixie]

69,000Km on a GSF1200 and still going (gloat)