Chain Tension Question 

loving the rant about maintenance at the end. couldn't be more true

This is the correct explanation of chain tension that correctly factors in the pivot point / suspension element. Your rant at the end; dead-on.

I like the ramble at the end. Thanks for the knowledge sir.

9.40 - 10.15 fucken awesome. Your a ledgend. Love it!

Nice, speaking sense in a way folk can understand. Ty for sharing! :-)

Thank you for the information mate

Love the passion. Spot on.

Love that last rant!!

New tyres feel awesome. Been wanting to change them for a long time - but they were still road legal.

Well explained. I preser a tight chain only time I err on the looser side or even add a few extra mil of slack is on track to avoid lockout.

that was a brilliant rant! well done.

Just realised from this it actually makes a difference if you have a bike on its own centre stand versus a paddock stand on the swing arms, the alignment of the sprockets will be different and therefore skew the tensioning.

Most of the motocross bikes I had have coaxial swing arm and front sprocket. Conversely, I've seen some that are getting on for 200mm apart, some chopper thing. Looked great at first glance, then stuff popped out as being a disaster waiting to happen.

Hi, I just replaced the chain on my ninja, I had to slide the rear wheel all the way forward so it would have 1.5" slack on the chain. Is this normal for a new chain? Should I worry that my tire is so forward?

The best would be the sprocket sitting at the pivot point of the swingarm. I think there are a few CanAm crossbikes working this way.

thank you

The ultimate best final check to do with chain slack is to make sure it isn't tight at ride height. Too many chains are adjusted With the bike on it's center stand and then not checked with riders weight on the bike. The average chain will get slightly tighter, because of the geometry of the frame/swing arm, when the bike is on the ground with the rider on it. Also move the bike to check for tight spots in the chain.

I'm having trouble with mine it's a 2001 zx6r every time I alter it on the paddock stand it always ends up too tight so I'm just going to try doing it on the kickstand. I think I'm suppose to have weight on the back to pick up the slack ? Any advice would be appreciated thanks

Ok so what happens if you run a lot of sag for whatever reason; does the manufacturers recommended generic chain tension still work? Surely there is a better way to tension the chain, like having the chain tight when the center of the two sprockets are inline for example?

Coolant giving more horsepower=Matt has a minor stroke

Hi mate. I own a bandit 1255cc. The adjustment marks of the chain when set equal, the sprocket teeth then touches the chain to the inside side or are just beside it. But in order to make the sprocket sits centered inside the chain I had to not rely on the equal measurement of the tension markers on the swingarm! What should I do!!!! Should I keep the sprocket teeth centered inside the chain even though the chain adjustment marks are not even on both sides ? Or is it okay to make the sprocket teeth tilted to the inside of the chain and therefore the chain marks on the swing arm on both sides are somewhat similar?

100% agree with the rant👍

How do you test a triplex primary chain to see whether it needs replacement? All help appreciated 👀

Lesson of the day,, buy a workshop manual for your particualr bike an read how to use basic maintenance

On my bike I remove the shock (only takes a couple of minutes) and lift the rear wheel through its travel to find the tightest spot. I adjust the tension to that spot. I know this would not be practical on a road bike, but it works great on mine and know I will never be chain bound at any point in the suspension travel.

Thanks

Unless you have a bike which has the front sprocket inline with the pivot like a BMW G450X.

I’m here for the lovely accent 😂

Are chain tensioners anygood and help?

I replaced my chain with a brand new chain and sprocket kit and the tick marks are equal on both sides.BUT my chain is on the loose side and the reading is not marking on the “new chain” or blue mark. It’s reading near the “replace chain” mark. WHY? It’s a brand new kit. Please help.

You look badass Matt

Spot on....in a word..sort the metal before the plastics.... Too many stick bling on a rollin sack of shit....

im amaized that no manufacturer make a sprocket in the pivit point of the swingarm and have a small chain from A to swingarm and another from swingarm to B. No more slack, and best of all no more chain adjustments!!

Passion!

You forgot to mention few things. The first one is how the sprockets get fucked if you run worn out chain. Basically they get deformed because the distance between the pins is getting bigger, therefore the pitch of the sprockets do not match perfectly, so they deform in order to accommodate changes. Also all the forces from acceleration and engine braking add up as well and it all goes trough your sprocket teeth. Thats why its cheaper to replace your chain 3 times instead of purchasing new sprockets every time you replace your chain. The second thing is anti-squat - thats how chain tension is correlating with the rear dampers. And how important is to have your rebound set correctly if you have good ones. Thats a topic for a whole video, so fuck it... it was worth mentioning tho :) Anyway, awesome video as always ! By the way Im a mountain bike mechanic before everything and Im surprised how much of this shit correlates....

Many years ago a slack chain nearly killed my brother, he had been out until early morning, would be rude not to jump the railway bridge... except the chain came off the sprocket in mid air..... landed with the back wheel locked up. The chain is a boring component of a bike, they get neglected at your peril though. A bit more important than self adhesive fake carbon fibre or LEDS...

Ha, why you worried about the back brake when you said you never use it? In America the most important thing on a bike is to look cool. Ironically though you only look cool to other people who like the same kind of bikes. Sportbikes have to do wheelies and cruisers have to be loud. Touring bikes are weighed down more than a station wagon full of cream cheese and whatever else people buy at the wall store. Not a lot of people trying to buy a good all-around bike for a decent price.

I've seen so many people with massively floppy chain on my commute, pretty cringe because it's pretty dangerous like it's so slack it can skip it a tooth

Thanks mate, love your work as i've no doubt many others do as well. I know it's not a heck of a lot but to show my appreciation of your video reply to my email question and to help with your channel i've just signed up for the $20/mth Patreon pledge. Cheers !

As in the photo for the video it shows the tension to be measured at **mm of movement below and above the chain line. Why then when you see videos of chain tension adjustment do they only ever push the chain up from the bottom and never pull it down below the chain line?

Having the chain too tight damages the final drive (engine sprocket output) bearing alignment, causing it to move the gearbox main shaft out of alignment just enough to cause the high gear selector fork to ride up against the gear groove and rapidly wear away. I've lost count of how many engines I've fixed with skewed final drive bearings and chewed up selector forks caused by an over tightened chain. Symptoms of a worn away selector fork due to over tight chain?? Top gear won't stay in when throttle opened and then gradually deteriorating to top gear won't engage as selector fork wears away over about 20 to 30 miles following chain being over tightened. The only recourse is to limp home in lower gears avoiding attempting to engage top gear as there is a high risk of a gearbox / rear wheel lock up (an underwear change will be required if this happens at speed!!). Gear selector forks and final drive bearings are cheap. Having to strip the engine down to replace parts is maximum hassle. (If a bike won't engage or hold in low gears under load then the clutch end bearing on the primary shaft is worn out and has caused wearing away of the low gear selector fork).

All well said mate haha, loud exhaust, stickers and shit I'm gonna look good ffs, chain and tyers up the shit. So many people have told me oh it's better to have a loose chain then too tight, both are no good, but they rave on about perfomance with their back tyer almost square as a brick.

So where do you check the slack, in the middle between both sprockets or in the middle between the rear sprocket and the swing arm pivot? He never told us.

I don't like going of the manufacturer chain slack spec. Its only good for one exact swing arm angle. Change anything that affects the stance of the bike and that spec is now useless. lets say you reduced the sag and you bike sits higher and the distance between both sprocket is less. In that case if you use the dealer spec your chain is now too tight and you could break something. The only way I think is any good is to manually check it. Disconnect the rear suspension and then find the tightest sport (straight swing arm) adjust the tension accordingly. Then measure the chain slack at a known point. (like all the way down when the bike is on a stand and the wheel is off the ground) You now have the minimum chain slack spec that you can measure at a repeatable point. But hey if you're bike is 100% stock with stock suspension setting, half a tank of petrol and sitting on perfectly level ground then yeah manufacturer spec all the way. But that doesn't work for me lol.

when adjusting the chain slack, is it right to pull the chain up (measure) and down (measure) or just up?

It's all down to the power of marketing over engineering nous

So does the chain get tighter or looser when you sit on your motorcycle?

Off topic but me and my bud were out riding today (dirtbiking) for shits and giggles I used a pice of pumpkin to clean my chain and holy frig worked great got all the big stuff off lol

I'm watching because the bad languages lol..love it!!

pulling callipers apart, looking forward to that one.Most of the power junkies you refer too don't have the skill to exploit the full potential of their engines anyhow ,I'm more in favour of weight saving as i feel the gains are much more beneficial .

Great video , this might sound like a silly question but I can't find much online about this , I ride with with a passenger all the time and we weigh about 290 lbs together on the bike and the manual states 20-30mm of chain slack , I set it at about 25mm but I don't want to put strain on my main bearing at the front sprocket so how much slack would you recommend, I was thinking between 25-30mm would be better or doesn't it matter as long as I'm in spec , I've also setup preload front and rear to compensate too , I'm set at the rear 10mm of static sag and about 30-35 mm of rider sag , does suspension travel affect the chain tension too 👍🏼

having watched this vid .. i,ve just adjusted my "chain" ! :)

In response to your statement at 3:46 I thought dirt bikes have more chain slacks b/c they have further suspension travel and if the chain was tighter it would break. What I’m saying is if your chain was tightest in its resting position, why would you add any slack? A chain is at its loosest at rest position and needs enough slack to account for the suspension.

Hi matt, I have a 2002 zx7r, the owners manual says I should have 30-40mm of slack, however I can only get 25mm of slack before the chain hits the chain guide when am measuring in the centre of front and rear sprockets, how am I supposed to measure slack properly? I believe other zx7r owners have reported the same problem on forums, thanks john.

8:30 If you can't stop at 150mph you won't be alive enough to forget anything :v

Spot on i see it all the time all the bling up with fucked chain shot tyres and bulging rubber brake lines

Chain stretch????? Don't you mean wear in the individual components resulting in the increase in chain length.

You lose feck all power from a slack chain. Stick your bike on a stand with a slack chain and turn the back wheel to take up the slack. It takes very little effort. However the snatch you get with a slack chain puts extra stress on the transmission components and will accelerate wear. It also makes the bike handle like crap, especially at low speed.

You sound as if you just ran from the police during your intro

Any noob is all about hp and nm. But as you mature. Its more interresting with good brakes. Nice suspension. Etc. An overall nice balanced handling bike. Id choose a 125 cc fun riding bike. Than a 1000cc that feels boring to ride.

Wish this video was in english 😜

Do chains actually stretch, or technically is it just wear?

This is two years too late and you’ll probably never respond but... my Dl1000 says on side stand adjust between 2and 3cm. But then when I sit on it the chain goes tight as fuck. So the straightest point between the two sprockets sure ain’t while it’s on its stand. Anyhow it confuses the hell outta me. I ended up going with 25mm when I’m sitting on it.

Doesn't chain tension have an effect on friction resistance? And what's worse for chain wear? Too tight, or too loose causing chain slap?

Has anyone had anything to do with ATK motorcycles A-Trac chain system,is it still available?

If you really care about your bike, go look up Ronnie Mac's Tech Tips. This yank knows his shit.

Always brakes first.

Buy a shafty, problem solved

"Where the rubber meets the road"!!! Why is this a cliché? Because it's the IMPORTANT BIT. All the power in the world makes not a speck of fucking difference if you have a chain that slips or snaps or insufficient traction. Basic, basic rational information. I've never owned a bike, love moto GP and, for medical reasons, never will. Hope that makes sense 😉

Remember too that if you ride in mud for example, it gets between the rollers and the sprocket. It is like dynamically increasing your sprocket size. (Hope i am making sense)

Second 1st!

Bout.

6th first!

1st last

First?

You must be joking. You talk too much.

Useless rant. I learned exactly nothing from this video.