Anyone ever had a chain snap on them?

[Jase22]

Neither my dad nor I had ever had a chain do this before, happened other day to me on way home. Pretty lucky I was as was doing c.60mph on dual carriageway. Triple S chain it is, I'm going to try go back through where I bought it as I don't think it should have snapped, it's not done zillion of miles either. Pre empting questions, not the link that was riveted on by yours truly either.

http://w3.bikepics.com/pics/2008/04/09/bikepics-1247393-800.jpg

http://w3.bikepics.com/pics/2008/04/09/bikepics-1247388-800.jpg

[Jase22]

Crappy pics I know, my phone camera is poo, but you get the idea. Swine to get it back from the middle of the dual carriageway though :D

[the_lone_wolf]

you were pretty lucky, there's a lot of energy contained in that rotating chain

see parry thomas

[xXBADGERXx]

Had it happen to my KTM Sting about 5 years ago , luckily I was in a 30 and had just pulled out of a junction , there was no noise or anything apart from the revs suddenly went up . I pulled the clutch in and drew to a halt at the side of the road . I happened to spot my chain as I was getting off the bike and was checking for traffic behind ........ it was sat in the middle of the road in a straight line . The aggro getting that bike home that night was unbelievable . A mate of mine had a Kawasaki 2 stroke 250 (KR1S) that snapped a chain and that came up through the bottom of the tank via the Aluminium lip that`s supposed to perevent that from happening , it was close to his left Nut as well :D . He was white for hours afterwards .

[Ruffy]

I've lost two in my time:
1st was on a CB250RS (single cylinder & rubish cush drive). It was badly worn so couldn't be adjusted properly (student days!) Made a mess of the side casing as a third of it wrapped around the front sprocket. Thankfully didn't hole the crank case though
2nd was when I the split link on the wife's old TZR250 gave up the ghost (lesson learnt about using rivetted/endless chains even on lower powered machines). Thankfully the chain was left fully intact in the carriageway and I just coasted to a halt, although I was cursing a lot as I was on route to the MOT test at the time.

Both times I was accelerating hard up a hill, so the chain was working hard.

Asking the obvious question: You hadn't overtightened the chain had you? Sometimes it's easy to do if the suspension is uncompressed when adjustment is made.

[Rog]

not happended to me but happended to a friend when we were out for a tootle. Ripped through the bottom of his engine wrote his bike off. One thing to check is the other links and see if there are any sign of fatigue on them. if there is and its all on one side, it could be a sign of alignment issues.

[markmoto]

The pics not very clear but that chain looks abit tired! touch wood (head) ive never had a chain snap and ive never seen a correctly maintained chain snap. Also dont forget that like everything in life you get what you pay for buy the best chain you can afford i,e one of the big boys i,e tsubaki etc look after it and replace it when its tired and i dont think you will ever have a problem. Its certainly something i never want to happen to my bike. Ive seen a few chains fail and ive seen the damage caused to rider and bike but on inspection the chains should have been changed miles ago. Just my pennys worth.

[Lozzo]

Twice - which is twice as often as I've had punctures in 30 years - once on my ZZR1100D2 and another on my old CB250RS (notoriously hard on chains and sprockets they were).

The ZZR's EK chain (which was only 4000 miles old) spat out the back of the bike and only took a small chunk out of the wheel rim - I was 400 yards from home at the end of a 350 mile journey and only doing 30mph. The EK importerr didn't want to know, even though I had a fully functioning Scottoiler on the bike and it was well maintained.


My CB250RS broke a Renold one as I accelerated away from traffic lights in Slough when I was working at Hein Gericke there, at the start of a 50 mile ride home. That one wrapped itself around the rear hub and locked the rear wheel. Luckily we had a new chain in stock so I got the bike back to the shop and stuck a new one on and paid for it the next morning. The chain was nowhere near new so I didn't approach the manufacturer about it.

A few years ago I worked for the DID importers and they had a batch of dodgy 50VM chains that were snapping regularly. I was sent out to get every one off the shelf and replace them with a different batch.

Some of the damaged bikes I saw were horrendous, like a 600 Diversion that had the chain part-wrap round the rear sprocket and act as a flail. That wiped out every bit of bodywork from the fairing backwards, the frame, swingarm, fuel tank and the rider's left leg got broken into the bargain. There was also a Gixer 750 that was almost unrecogniseable as the chain had locked the rear wheel at high speed and spat the rider off. That one had actually snapped the swingarm on the chain side and the rear wheel was just flapping about

The importer's insurance company footed the bill for all damage at the time, and we did make huge efforts to get the bad chain out of circulation.

[xXBADGERXx]

I feel sick reading that Loz .

[injury_ian]

How long can i expect out of the OE chain, I think it is passed its best and i am on 13k.

[StreetHawk]

Bigape snapped a chain I seem to remember.. He was on one wheel at the time :-)

[dirtydog]

Yeah i've had a chain snap on my sv was doing 3 figure speed up the M6 at the time, took a chunk out of my hugger, snapped the clutch push rod and cracked the engine case

[Jase22]

Seems more frequent than I gave credit for.

It isn't brand new by any stretch, but it certainly wasn't nackered and I've got a Scottoiler. Looks a bit shabby there cos of both the poor light and the fact it was stuck in middle of a salty road for a few days and think it had been ridden over a few times by lorries, cars etc. as was a bit twisted and squished.

My dad's just got me a DID chain and sprockets today as I didn't fancy another Triple S one, things like this can tend to put you off. I don't like Bridgestone tyres for similar reason as I never got on with a set I had, which kept spinning up.

I'm feeling fairly lucky, could have been a hell of a sight worse. Shaft drive conversion anyone?

[tomaso]

Broke a chain on my CBR600 on the M40 outside Startford upon Avon. No idea where chain ended up. Got ripped of by Knotts when they fitted new chain with wrong number of links, and I am still bitter.

And snapped a chain on my old XL600 that took out a bit of the engine casing but not enough to wreck the engine.

One thing it does do is make you take a lot more notice of chain adjustment and lubing.

I bought a VF500 once that when I gave it a thorough clean noticed a large blob of weld on the rear of the crankcase near the sprocket from someone elses miss fortune, oh and mine for buying it!