chain adjustment help

Andrex Bog Roll!

That picture helps a lot. Measuring the distance from the (perfectly straight) front wheel to each of the (in this case) copper tubes. If the two measurements are the same, game on, rear wheel is straight. If one measurement is higher than the other you need to take the difference, divide by two and move the rear wheel by use of the adjuster on the smallest measurement side by that amount. Once completed, check measurements again to confirm the wheel is straight.

It makes sense in my head, not sure it makes sense now I have written it down though.

It took all of 10 mins to set the alignement on that thing, then one of the rear shoes fell apart and egg'd the drum (bent it so it was nolonger round) and I ended up changing the back wheel and doing it all again, fun fun fun.

I did the SV's chain tension the other day, I was just very careful to move both nuts by the same amount.

Cheers for that pic and the explanations!

I had to think about it for a bit, but i now get it...eureka!

I don't have any piping, so, if i can find something else to use, i may actually give it a go. Even tho the garage option won't break the bank, i do like to try things myself wherever possible. Altho, having said that, that's what got me in this mess in the first place, lol.

Just take it in slow increments to start off with, i.e

do 1 (or even 1/2) turn on the left, then one turn on the right.

if anyone's interested, i found this video on YouTube. it has to be the easiest and cheapest method out there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBxK-OQ--fg

That video just made it crystal clear to me. I was really struggling with the text explanations! Thanks!!

That's what I said. Only nowhere as well.

Originally Posted by Stig

That's what I said. Only nowhere as well.

Aye you totally did, I'm a tube 'tis all!

Latest update: spent the whole morning trying to sort the problem. The string method confirmed that the wheels were misaligned by at least 15mm. However, try as i might (kicking and tyre wacking included) i couldn't realign the wheels. So i gave up and took my SV650 to the tyre garage. They said the markers are fine and then spent all of five minutes re-adjusting the chain. However they used neither a laser nor a staight edge, and the chain now only has ca.10mm freeplay. However, my owner's manual says the freeplay should be 20-30mm. They said the wheel was definitely aligned correctly, but i'm not convinced. How can they be sure the weheels are correctly aligned when they only had the markers to go by? Can i trust them?!