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Dar



Joined: 04 Mar 2006
Posts: 349
Location: Ballston Spa, NY

PostPosted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 2:10 am    Post subject: Dumb Question Reply with quote

Question for any of you that ride high-powered rigs with a chain rather than a shaft drive:
What sort of drive chain life is a reasonable expectation for a rig like my Bandito? I installed a new chain (an RK X-ring) and both sprockets last spring, and now 6000 miles later, it is about shot. Stretching badly, and noticable wear on the sprockets (rear one at least). Seems like a short time to me, but my rides for the last 27 years have been shaft driven (except for a 650cc Cagiva somewhere in there with half the power and half the weight of the Bandito, but the same size chain) so I'm not sure what I should expect from a chain these days. Some 2-wheel riders tell me that 10K miles isn't unreasonably short for a high powered sport bike chain, so if I add some extra wear for the weight of the sidecar, maybe I'm doing OK, but don't really know.

What has anybody else seen for chain life? Any recommendations for long lived chains? Question

Dar

(don't remember where I saw this recently) :
"There is no such thing as a stupid question, but I HAVE noticed a lot of very curious idiots around lately."
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Ralph



Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Posts: 603
Location: Lexington, Ky

PostPosted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 2:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yep Very Happy Don't ride in the rain so much Crying or Very sad U Yanks
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Dar



Joined: 04 Mar 2006
Posts: 349
Location: Ballston Spa, NY

PostPosted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 2:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Next thing, you'll probably tell me I shouldn't ride in the snow and road salt either, Ralph. Big Grin But that was LAST winter, BEFORE the new chain and sprockets. Haven't had any of that stuff here yet this winter.
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Bandit Bill



Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 202
Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Dar:

I dunno if mine is high horsepower now, last dyno was 40k hard km's ago Smile

I've gone through three chain sprocket sets on my Bandit - The stock chain on a stock bike lasted 25,000 km's with at least nominal maintenance. For the second, I switched to an EK ZVX chain - this is of the same tensile strength (10,000 ft lbs i think? Dunno) that is OEM for the Hayabusas et al.

The second ZVX lasted from 25,000 km to 50,000 km again, 1/2 of it's life with the chair attached.

The third is still looking strong with 10,000 km on it, only one adjustment necessary so far.

I always use steel sprockets. I tend to play with sprocket ratio's, so they sometimes got switched and swapped, so usually had less km's on them than the chain - but no appreciable wear on any of them, including the current one at 6,000 km.

I do use chainwax on my bike fairly frequently, and clean the chain down and relube it totally at least twice a season.
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Paul



Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Posts: 182
Location: Utah

PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

6000 miles on a chain is pretty darned short. 6000 miles on a sprocket is EXTREMELY short - one sprocket usually lasts at least two chains.

Are you sure the tension was correct? Having the chain too tight is a common reason for short chain life. Too loose is bad, but too tight is worse.

Modern chains need virtually no maintenance - just keep the outside clean, and spray it with something like TriFlow (a teflon spray lube) once in a while, to prevent rust and keep the seals moist. The real lubrication is sealed inside with the o-rings, so there's no way to really add lubrication beyond what the factory put in there.
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