Is my Chain dangerous?

Originally Posted by El Boccadillo

My maths could be wrong but I reckon you would need the thick end of 8 to 10cms of free play before you jumped a tooth. You certainly get that on a pushbike a) because you have a derailleur gear with loads of free chain play to take up sprocket sizes and b) because large sprocket drives small.

You certainly can get it on a motorcross bike because you have huge rear wheel suspension movement and often a gear box sprocket well for'ard of the swing arm pivot. Big arc then.....

Don't know of it happening very often on road motorcycles except when aviating over Ballaugh Bridge!! But my apologies if you know better.

You are most likely quite right. My 'few mm' of sprocket/chain pull-off are simply my comfort zone. As I've got older, I find I worry more about this sort of thing than I did when I was a pup.

I bought my SV from a guy who ridden it into the garage at the end of summer and not touched it till I bought it at Easter. The chain had a tight spot and went whhhrrrrrr.....crunch.......whhhrrrrrr.....crunch. ........ Made me very nervous at high speeds - was always wondering what would happen, so I changed it (and the sprockets while I was at it as the front one looked a bit dodgy)

Now it's nice and smooth, no tight spots and just goes whhhrrrrrr.....whhhrrrrrr.....whhhrrrrrr..... Loveleeee

P.S. after shopping around I bought x-ring gold chain and sprockets from busters accessories for £85.

[northwind]

There's a bit of variety in what people mean by a tight spot. For some people it's a slight tightness, for others it's an entirely frozen link. So how bad news it would would depend where on that scale you place it

Originally Posted by KeithSV

P.S. after shopping around I bought x-ring gold chain and sprockets from busters accessories for £85.

Cheers Keith
bin looking for a reasonably priced kit (plus their scottoiler is only £65)

Originally Posted by KeithSV

after shopping around I bought x-ring gold chain and sprockets from busters accessories for £85.

If you'd have gone to BFM Motorcycles, you could have got the kit for £80 delivered Sorry See here.

If you'd have gone to BFM Motorcycles, you could have got the kit for £80 delivered Sorry

Bugger !

looks like its going to save me money.

Originally Posted by Cloggsy

If you'd have gone to BFM Motorcycles, you could have got the kit for £80 delivered Sorry See here.

Thought this was going to be easy
just how many type of X Ring gold chains are available out there?
which manufacturers can anyone recommend?

About chain types:

The 'X' ring means that the seals in the links are 'X' shaped rather than 'O' shaped, which gives two seal contacts on each side rather than the one with an o-ring and so keeps the crap out/oil in better.

The 'Gold' bit just refers to the plating on the links (surprisingly it's gold coloured). I guess it makes them more corrosion resistant, but they also look nicer.

To me the chain's one of the critical parts of the whole bike so paying a few quid more for the best you can afford makes sense.

When fitting you get two types of link pin - one with a spilt link where you don't need a special tool (uses a clip to keep the link in place), and one with a link where you need to peen over (ie squash) the link end to keep it in place. It's generally recommended to go for the ones you need to peen over as, once done, it can never come adrift. The down side is you need the special tool (which I scrounged) and it's not as easy.

Again to me the chain's critical, so if in doubt get it done professionally.

P.S. The one I got from Busters (www.busters-accessories.co.uk) includes an EK chain, which they also have for £5 MORE at BFM (the £80 kit has Iris). No idea on the relative merits of EK and Iris chains. Not such a bugger after all.

[northwind]

Thing is though.. On an SV a well kept chain will tend to outlast your sprockets, especially if you've got an oiler, and you'll want to replace them as a set... So going for a top class chain won't neccesarily make all that much sense, especially if you'rve dropped a front tooth or you're using an ally rear sprocket. I went with a nice Tsubaki gold o-ring and Renthal sprockets (steel front, ally rear) which was £65 all in, and I doubt it'll work out any worse over time than getting a better x-ring.

(That was a good price for the set though,you might find it hard to match that)