Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Don't tighten your chain, anyone try this...

Talking to a buddy last night at Bike Night, and he was telling me he has 24,000 miles on his original chain (he rides a Hyabusa), and has only tightened his chain ONE time in that entire time, and he rides it hard. Now, I will say that his chain is the cleanest I've ever seen, he is very meticulous. But he says his dealer originally suggested he just leave it be, that the chain will stretch only so far, and then no more. That basically, if you keep tightening the chain, it keeps stretching. Anyone ever hear of this theory or try it. I have to wonder, if he is just super lucky, or maybe this thoughtline is valid. His bike puts out a HELL of a lot more power than our bikes, and I looked at it and his sprockets and both look very good. He said he is getting ready to finally replace it, but is shipping out to Iraq next week(private security firm), so is just going to sell the bike and buy 1 or 2 when he gets back (why not, it's $250k for a 6 month job, former SEALS/Green Berets only!) Anyhooo, this has my curiosity piqued...

No, but I just put 30 miles on my chain, with a tad too much tension, and that was not a comforting move. With the clutch slowing down to around 5 mph, would get a distinct vibe / friction feel through the pegs. I normally left the tension a little on the loose side on my first chain, but it still was running out of adjustability really fast around 11000 miles. Does the 'busa use a 525 chain like us, or do they run a 530?? That might make some difference.

This is a good point. I last adjusted my chain when I replaced the rear tire back in early March(?). I've been waiting for it to stretch so I can get a couple links removed. Tension still great and no other adjustments since last September with about 2,500 miles on new chain after it was installed at 24,000 miles. I am at 37,000 now and chain still looks great. You can read other posts about how I hate chains and actually abuse them with pressure washers.
Maybe they have a little polybelt hidden inside.
Ride Safe,
Dennis

A lot would have to do with this, riding style, torque output, and chain material. If the material is very good then it would last longer than most. His thought of the chain stretching only to a certain point is false as the torque exerted on the chain from the sprockets cannot all be transferred into power to the rear wheel although it would be nice, some even a tiny fraction would be transfered to the chain. Now most premature chain stretch can be attributed to overtightening. Even though it doesn't seem that important to most an overtightened chain puts strain on all the parts that it is linked to directly and indirectly.

My guess would be that his chain is of a very good guality and that his dealer did any adjustments while it was in for service without his knowledge.

Wojo, this was the stock chain from the factory. I have gone with the premium DID 525 chain this week, I may track it over a 1000 miles or so and see how it stretches, before I tighten it (providing it is not slapping the swingarm or chainguard) His dealer is the one telling him NOT to adjust it.

roundslide, they do use a 530 chain, but the 'busa is also putting a LOT more Torque and HP through that chain, so....

I have a little over 9100 miles on my bike, and have only adjusted the chain once at 2750 miles. The chain tension hasn't changed since adjusting it at 2750. The bike doesn't have enough miles on it to make any claims on wear, but thus far everything looks pretty much the same as when I first got the bike.

Tom

Greg,

A too tight chain is way bad. A too loose chain is sorta OK. That is unless you ride next to someone that has a loose chain. Pretty scary site...

Watch the chains on the road racers, tons of slop! I can't believe they don't skip a tooth. Maybe they do. They look scary.

I'd have to agree after my recent experience, that a little loose is better than a little tight. I could feel that tension in the pegs with the clutch in, was giving me the heebie jeebies. Decreased the tension with a half turn on the adjusters, and now no uncomfy feeling. Definitely learned a lesson on that one.

IMHO, chains don't "stretch". Chains either wear externally or internally. What is referred to as "initial stretch" is merely the internal lubricant being forced to the forward side of each roller under load. Once it's there, the chain needs a minor adjustment and you should be good to go. If the chain is cleaned and lubed on a regular basis it should last for lots of miles. Eventually the seals will wear out and the internal lube will get contaminated or lost and the internal wear will accellerate rather quickly.

So if you need to adjust your chain a lot, you probably need a new one.

You know, when you put it that way Grump, makes a lot of sense. I was just checking the specs on the chain I bought at the DID website, 2.2mm thick sideplates, 10mm rollers, 8mm through pins, tensile load of 3800 lbs, that is one stout chain!! I'm going to give it about 500 miles, then check it, adjust it slightly, and leave it and see how it looks each 500 miles without adjusting. See what it does.

I've tightened my chain once in 9,300 miles and that was when I bought it used at 1,200 miles.

I hope we don't read about your friend in the news. $250k is a lot of dough, you just don't want to leave it to your heirs. Although it sounds like he can take care of himself.

Yeah, hopefully the only time he's in the news is if we see him escorting Condy Rice or Rumsfeld around Baghdad....

Not to totally run this train off the tracks, but they had a BIG article about one of those soldiers of fortune in Rolling Stone last year, his name was Wolf something, then recently they had his obituary.... Scary buisness!! I wish him the best.

By theway, Grumps explanation nails it. If the material were actually physically stretching then we would be talking about chains breaking, not adjusting them... When metal starts to stretch, it's beyond it's tensile strength and is plasticly deforming. That's bad. MOst stuff is rated with a huge safety factor too, so if a chain has a load rating of 3800lb you could probably hang 4 times that weight from it without it breaking.

I would expect the Hyabusa to have one heck of a good quality chain on it. A really smooth high RPM 4 cylinder will generally induce much less chain stretch than a low speed twin that tends to hammer everything. No question about it though, a little tight is a BAD thing, to be avoided like the plague!

Benny, after thinking and thinking and taking all into account I really don't think the chain stretches. I mean think about it, 2.2mm doesn't sound like much, but I guarantee when you try to stretch a section of it, it's going to take a LOT more force than our bikes can ever exert on it. Plus, given how worn down my front sprocket was (to the point that the side plates were digging into the rubber vibration dampener that was molded onto our stock sprockets), I now suspect that every time I had to "tighten" the chain, it was maybe because of the fact that the outside diameter of the front sprocket was wearing away, becoming ever smaller, and I was taking up that new slack.... Just a thought...

Greg,
I imagine your "sprocket wear" theory is spot on.

BTW, your new chain probably has a tensile strength of 8300 psi, not 3800.....

The EK chain I just bought is rated at 9300....

Well, there ya go, it's definitely not stretching, since it IS 8547 lbs(not 3800 as I mistakenly stated), that's strong enough to hold up 17 of our bikes before it breaks! Now yeah, I've got Bubs, rejetted, gutted the airbox, and I could even put nitrous on her, but don't think I'll ever get that much force out of the engine....

Yeah you guys are right. What we refer to as chain stretch would probably be more accurately described as "chain slop" which is really just worn tooths and links.

Well, good news for me, I thought the part number on the receipt for the chain was "off" and was cleaning and checking the break-in of my chain, and it says "RK" on the links, not "DID"... Hmmm, well turns out that they grabbed an RK GB525XW instead of the equivalent DID chain. The RK chain is rated to 9300 instead of 8500lbs, and is designed to be used on bikes up to 1100cc, instead of the 750cc rating on the DID, so now I'm even more pleased....