How often do you tighten your chain?

How often do you tighten your chain?

Lately it seems that i have to tighten my chain on almost a weekly basis.

i get it somewhat taught, not bound up, but a little stiff. after a day or two of riding it seems to be quite loose again.

is this normal or is the part of my bike that tightens the chain (no idea what its called) going haywire?

 

WTF with teh questions

Tighten it when It is Loose:crazy:

 

my question is how often should it get loose. if i have a defective part then its getting loose way to quick and somethign could brake.

however, since you dont think i care about ligitimate questions.

i do not have a reference to judge by, if its braking and loosening to quickly it could fail and cause an accident, but as i have not owned motorcycles since before last year i do not know what to expect.

therefore i am asking of the general populous here what their experiences are.

if they go for 1000 miles before needing a tighten then that would tell me that part of my bike is failing and needs to be repaird before it breaks and my chain binds up ending in my death.

 

Guys, don't feed the troll.

 

To many factors. I am sure Towing a trailer is not helping .... You should check you chain when you lube it. If it is too free tighten it a bit. You are lookign for a more properly slackened chain than a tight chain.

 

Seriously? First of all, from your description it sounds like you may be tightening it too much (very bad). Or perhaps you're not getting the pinch bolt tight (also very bad). There should be some slack in the chain if properly adjusted. It should not be taut. The manual tells you how to adjust the chain and measure the proper slack, and how much to torque the pinch bolt. If you don't have a manual, I believe you can download one from this site. Good luck!

 

I asked this question before with no responce, How much slack should be int eh chain. when i first started riding i figured about a half of an inch, tho lately iv been getting it a tad tighter than that.

the chain doesent seem to be bad. doesent have any kinks or anything, tho it does seem to be a tad to long. taking one link out made it too short, whereas replacing one link with a half link might have worked a bit better.

 

Ill have to look through it. pinch bolt being the 17mm one on the swingarm?

 

You can't tighten or loosen your chain without using the pinch bolt. You certainly don't do it by adding or removing links. I was trying to be nice to you, but now I realize you are indeed mentally challenged. I had thought perhaps you were just a tad slow. Get some help. :crazy:

 

Assuming its a real question:

By taught do you mean the tightest part set is 25mm, do you check the chain several places to see if some parts are tighter then others and do you recheck the tightest part is still 25mm again after you have tightend the pinch bolt back up ?

 

... removing the links because when i tighten it as far as it will tighten its still seems a bit loose.

meaning that the chain is too long. meaning too many links.

 

what do you mean by the tightest part? how can one part of the chain be tighter than another.

 

Some chains can stretch a little over time and use especially if you like hard acceleration in the lower gears also even with new chain and sprockets installed the VFR for some reason seems to have a slightly varied tensions as you spin the rear wheel.

I changed my last chain after only 16,000miles as it had stretched with the loosest point about 36mm when the tightest was 25mm and a couple of links were stiff in one area causing a very small but annoying over long distance speed related vibration.

 

well. honestly i am still not sure exactly what you mean,

but in the caht i was taking with BP and he says that hte pinch bolt needs 48 lbs (to be checked with the manual he says). I am just using my wrench so im sure im not getting it to 48 lbs. its logical that is the problem. tho i dont think iv got my torkwrench anymore, i can probably get my uncle to do it so ill get it tightened to spech and see how it goes then.

thanks for your help tho. weather bp believes me or not im a noob to bikes and have gotten much further than i would have due to the advice iv obtaind here.

 

With pinch bolt done up put your VFR on the Center stand find the place underneath the swing arm where the under chain is loosest using a short steel ruler pull the chain gently firmly with your finger and thumb from max up to max down by hand using the tire to roll the chain around measuring at many points.

OR / AND

For your own familiarity with rubber gloves on you should get an idea by feel for the tighest point just by rolling the tire by your right hand and applying slight downward pressure on the inside of the lower chain with your left hand.

 

is this it john?

it is tight, rotate the wheel then its more or less tight?thus a different area of the cahin?

 

The master link is usually the weak point that stretches faster than the rest. When chain is installed, it is hard to lube it as well at the other links lubed at the factory.

 

I'm sorry; I don't mean to be the peckerhead here but I can't take the "chain-stretching" references any longer. GFAR, chains don't stretch; have you seen hardened alloy steel stretch recently? There is minute yet consistent wear on the sprocket teeth and the chain rollers as they interact; as they wear due to this friction process the tolerances expand and the chain becomes looser.

This isn't rocket science; put the bike on the freakin centerstand, check the bottom run of the chain by pushing up on it roughly half-way between the front and rear sprocket; if it moves up and down about an inch leave it alone, if it's a lot more or a lot less then loosen the pinch bolt, grab the spanner wrench, adjust as needed, then re-tighten the pinch bolt WITH A TORQUE WRENCH. Accurate torque on that bolt is kind of important. Please, please let this be put to bed now.

 

What year is your bike?

 

I don't mean to be the peckerhead, but yes, hardened steel can streach, although its going to take more force than what a bike can put on it.

however, it does create friction slowly eating away at the rings, thus making the chain longer.

however if you bothered to actually read the thread my problem is that im not torquing the pinch bolt.

thanks to bp i know that is where i went wrong.