whats wrong with my chain?
 

i cleaned and lubed my chain this afternoon, and after letting the lube dry in for a while i started the bike on the rear stand and put it into first gear, just to get the newly lubed chain working for a while. as the rear wheel was moving, the chain was kind of jerking around for a while. not at all smooth. the chain and sprocket are original and the bike has approx 3k miles on it. i have done over 1100 miles since owning the bike and this is my second time cleaning and lubing the chain. i turned off the ignition after spotting this and rotated the rear wheel with my hands to check for tight spots but there dosent seem to be any.

but could someone tell me what the black piece under the chain is in this pic? the chain seems to be resting on it and on closer inspection was able to pull little plastic strands from off of it. the chain seems to be wearing it away.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/834/photo33ji.jpg
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or is it a case that my chain just needs adjusting. is there too much free play here?

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/5272/photo22x.jpg
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http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/7439/photoal.jpg
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Re: whats wrong with my chain?
 

When a chain is cold, even a well lubed one, it will have spots in it that are tighter than the rest, so when you run it as you did, on a stand and with zero load on it, then it will always tend to jump about a bit. You also have to bear in mind that a V twin on tick over will pulse a bit as well, stick it in 3rd and rev it a bit and see if it goes away (just don't do this if your paddock stand is the cup variety, surprising how quick an SV can take off across the garage when it falls off doing this).

Re: whats wrong with my chain?
 

The black piece is a rubbing strip designed to stop the chain wearing through the swingarm, the chain will rub against it at times. Don't worry, it isn't wearing away, the grooving is to suit the profile of the chain sideplates and rollers, the lube on the chain will look after it.

That free-play looks pretty much right to me, something like 30mm with light finger pressure, or as you show there just about touching the rubbingstrip when on the sidestand. Any tighter and the chain can lose all its slack when the suspennsion compresses and then it puts very high loads into the bearings and chain which accelerates wear.

Snatchiness is to be expected if running the transmission on a stand with nothing to put load on the wheel, the engine is firing at intervals and jerking the wheel each time it fires.

Be careful running it in gear on a paddock stand, all sorts of things can go wrong (falling off the stand, fingers getting in the chain etc)

Re: whats wrong with my chain?
 

+1 to the two comments above. All looks ok to me and as long as you're not getting excessive jerkiness or clunky noises when actually on the bike then I wouldn't get too concerned. for the reasons given above, without weight to stretch the chain a little jumpiness is to be expected.

Re: whats wrong with my chain?
 

I recently invested in one of these and have been very happy with it, except when I forgot to turn it off and it drained onto the patio at work! Oops.

http://www.tutorochainoiler.com/comp...761ddd4f11.jpg

Saves lots of faffing about with chain sprays and the like and keeps the chain running lovely.

I use the sit test for chain tension, I sit on the bike and check for at least an inch of free movement up and down on the lower chain run. This requires arms like an ape, or sitting backwards on the bike!

Re: whats wrong with my chain?
 

I'm sure this is the one that came 1st in Bikes recommendations, mostly I think because how good it is for the price - I was tempted to get one but knew i'd always forget to turn it off so I went for a Scottoiler instead. Top it up & pretty much forget about it!

Re: whats wrong with my chain?
 

The rubber piece on the swingarm is called the 'chain buffer'.

To check the chain for excessive stretch:
Count out 21 pins (20 pitches) on the chain and measure the
distance between the two points. If the distance exceeds the
service limit, the chain must be replaced.

Drive chain 20-pitch length
Service limit : 319.4 mm (12.6 in)

As a guide my pointy is on a 56 plate, 8000 miles on original chain and it measures 302mm, so loads of play left. I suspect the sprocket will need changing before the chain has had enough.