Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Masterlink

The chain is stamped 525 VM, other side DID, which in my search comes rare to nonexistent. There are several DID alphabet flavors, which one is a perfect fit? Riveted or clip on, I have the technology for either.

http://www.wemoto.com/parts/picture/bc-3118198b/
Is this what you're after? I found a twisted link on my Scrambler so I'm on a quest now for a chain/sprocket set myself. Right at 21K miles on this one do I don't feel too bad but it does sideline the Scram until I get replacements.

I will be buying a different brand chain next time, the only one I found so far is in Jolly Olde England. I see that's where you found yours too. WTF

You probably already found this spec chart:
http://www.didchain.com/chainSpecs.html

I like clip master links but the X ring is a b!tch to get the clip on.

I've got some small fancy parallel clamps, in fact I bought them after a wrestling match with a masterlink. And I agree, there is a lot to be said of the roadside convenience of the clip type.

Just let a guy leave his Harley in my driveway a couple days ago while he went to get a truck because his belt broke.

IIRC, The Good Friar had a road trip demolished 250 hundred miles from home, over his new belt drive. Must have picked up a pebble. I live in the land of Glacial Till, more rocks than dirt. No belts for me.

Hmmmm....a belt vs chain thread ya say? Ok, I've been totally ok with a chain system. I got 20 K out of my chains with just a little effort. The Indian had 22 K on the belt before it was replaced, didn't need it for wear, just had some squeaking issues, warrantied. My second belt has about 28 K on it and no problems. Hardly an adjustment. Course, I ride like an old lady most of the time. My mechanic says he regularly sees belts on Victorys going to 50 K with no problem. I gotta admit that thinking about a rock creeping up between the belt and rear pully makes me nervous. I think of the obvious "somethings gotta give".

There is a simple to utilise method of having a spare belt at the ready, without having to remove the swing arm. When you make your initial move over to a belt, take the spare, encircle around and wind it up tight around the swingarm crossmember, secure tightly and seal it as discreetly as possible with a quality tape. When and or if you lose your drive belt, unwrap the tape and put your spare on the pulleys, tighten, realign, and away you go. Done it many times on gang shafts with multiple vee belt pulleys, where if a belt breaks somewhere in the middle, unless you have in place spares, you would have to remove every belt in front of it first. Except the spare would be taped to un attached tubing sections between the pulleys on the shaft, so that the rotating shaft wouldn't wear out the spares. Crossmembers do not spin, so no problem there.

That's an interesting idea. Would probably work on some bikes, but not my Indian. It takes an hour and a few tools, plus a lift, to get the rear axel and wheel off. And, there's probably not room up by the swing arm to fold a belt. This is a bike that you are probably NOT gonna work on the roadside. My America was probably gonna be the last bike simple enough to work on myself. Of course, I still work on my other Triumph and my various antiques. Funny thing is, I finally got to an age where I don't much feel like working on this stuff anyways. My youngest boy has been nagging me to get my GT6 going again, but I never seem to have the time and the money to get there. I COULD just give it to him, but he wouldn't appreciate it. He is a good enough gear head but he totally doesn't understand the love of machinery, especially classy antiques.

Rich, is your GT6 a convertible?

GT6+ 69 Was the best year as to performance, but 73s were the best looking aesthetically. I transplanted a TR-250 motor into a 68 GT-6 and she would go.

Update, those incredible cheap deals on EBay for low mileage chains (wrecked bikes) are not such a deal as DID 525 VM chains and their masterlinks have been out of production since '07, as well as the upgraded VM-2 (2010). VM-2 masters are more accessible, and have the correct pin size, but expect to be running the loose side plate back and forth on a honing oil stone until you have evenly removed ten thou of an inch material, as I did yesterday. I have better things to do as I'm sure most everybody else does too. Or saving a Dime to expend 10 Dollars worth of mundane aggravation.

In the end I chose a RK 525 set with 43/18 sprockets from Sprocket Center. That X ring clip style master link was a bit difficult to get on but once I figured out how to compress the X rings it clipped right in. I'll probably go by the local shop and the tech there use his tool and put the permanent link in before I get too many miles on but I'm confident the clip type will work (after all I'm not racing.)