On road trip - Worn Chain

It's Sunday and most shops are closed today and monday and I'm needing to ride from Jacksonville Fl back home to Ohio. I put a new o-ring chain on about 4k ago and have had to adjust it like every 400 miles and have run out of adjustment. My guess is the front sprocket is worn. Rear looks good. My question is can I remove 1 link for the 800 mile ride back, or I just setting myself up for a break down? The chain is slack enough where it's starting to rub on the center stand.

 

I think I would shorten up the chain and take my chances, keeping a close eye on the situation. If it begins to look like imminent disaster, you can always hole up for the night and seek new parts tomorrow.

 

That's a long ride there Bud on a worn chain. I think you are setting yourself up for disaster if you do anything other than new chain AND sprockets. With those kinda miles on it each day, you are going to heat them up pretty good and I would not even consider commencing such a trip without the change. I am sure you are already aware of this but I think you missed the Que here long before today, You need to postpone the trip for a day and try to find a shop open Monday for the change before you go. Failing that, a very easy ride for one say then stop along the way for the repair.

Removing a link, plain and simple , I do not know. I suggest that if you have that ability to do this work, you are totally capable of a whole change on another day. And I am sure that a sprocket and chain change would be less time spend on actual work than to remove a link and re-install. Where are you getting the link pins?

 

Theres a cycle gear store about 1 mile from me. They have a link and chain breaker tool in stock and I was going to put on a slip-on link that I carry with me. I can't get a chain and sprockets until Tuesday since most shops are closed on Mondays and thats if they have them in stock. I just didn't want to remove a link and then be to short.

 

Well thanks for the input. Went and bought the link tool and going to remove one link. I'll nurse it back and see how it goes.

 

Made it back in 15 hrs. Damn I love this bike.

 

Ride on! :first:

 

Good to hear. Now get a new chain and sprocket and ride some more.

 

What brand chain let you down after only 4000 miles, huh ?? Something unusual and strange going on, and it's nothing to do with the front sprocket.

Possible that the chain was one link too long when you installed it ???

 

I'm not sure what brand it was. I know I paid $90 for it and it was o-ring from a local Suzuki dealer. I counted it out, 112 including the master. I bought the bike back in Sept or August from a 1 owner and in his records he didn't have a sprocket replacement listed. Everything else but that.

 

Buy the way, this is my first VFR and the first bike I've had in a while that wasn't shaft driven. Like I said the rear sprocket looks good to me but I don't know how it compares to a new one. After I buy one I might hold it up against the other and find out its worn out. But the bottom line is She's getting new parts and I'm heading for the Dragons Tail in a few weeks.

 

I remember riding to mid ohio with some friends 15 years ago. Every time my friend on the ducati took off you could hear a fairly ominous popping sound. We camped out and took the front sprocket cover off. No teeth. I asked him how often he lubed his chain. He said he didn't need to as he was using an Oring chain. Ouch.

We stopped at every dealer we could find and none had anything that would match. He knew his dealer was at the track doing an endurance race so we made it there and tracked them down and they loaned him a sprocket off their race bike. All ended well.

Moral of story is to lube your chain O-ring or not.

 

Well turns out the sprockets are in good shape, front looks almost new. Picked up a EK from Iron Pony, put it on and everything looks good. Just need all this rain to stop so I can put a few hundred miles on it to be sure before heading to the Dragon on the 25th.