This might be a stupid question but does anyone know the length of a new 530x108 chain in mm? My friend has just came to see me and I was shocked to see how slack the chain was on his vfr. Its adjusted to the max and I've never seen a chain so slack. He is going to get a new chain and sprocket kit but I just wondered if anyone knew the the length for my own personal interest.
Chains are not measured in mm's as that would confuse things for no good purpose. Size and number of links is all that's needed.
Yea. Who needs all that pesky metric stuff anyway. We tried using that in the good 'ol USA. It was a terrible 5 days!
I know they are not measured in mm's but for my own sad interest I was just curious to see how much is stretched compared to a new one without actually having a new one handy to compare with. Thanks
Now I'm confused because the adjuster on his bike moves freely back and forward but even set as far back as it goes, the chain is hanging down with a good 3 inches of play. I have even counted the links......108 which is correct!
Do you know if he has stock sprockets or not. It's possible that he has a smaller front and/or rear sprockets and the number of links was never compensated for. On your length note...(sorry it's not in CM/MM) "Generally, roller chain is denoted as follows: the first digit specifies the chain's pitch, in 1_8-inch increments. The remaining digits correspond to the width of the chain in 1_80 of an inch. A 530 chain, then, has a pitch of 5_8 inch, and a width of 30_80 inch, or 3_8 inch. A 520 chain is 1_4-inch wide, correspondingly lighter, but also somewhat weaker than a 530 chain. There are some exceptions to this; For instance, 125GP machines utilize a 428 chain, which is a 425-sized chain with slightly thicker sideplates." Taken from the following website... Sport Rider-motorcycle sport bike gearing Read more: Sport Rider-motorcycle sport bike gearing Cheers!
The front sprocket has 17 teeth and the rear has 43 which is the same as mine and standard I think. He said the chain has been on their for a long time and so have the sprockets. I noticed the rear sprocket has quite bad chips in the teeth so its rather worn. Perhaps the combination of this and the age of chain and sprockets has something to do with it. Sorry for my ignorance but I know nothing about the mechanical side of any vehicle. I can build a computer with paper clips and a bit of string (ok not quite) but ask me how a motorcycle works and I'm stuffed lol.
Haha......no problem mate. Just order a set of new sprockets and chain and replace them. The reason you see the slack cause the sprockets are worn over time. The teeth got smaller and the groove got deeper.
Thanks for ths advice guys. I now understand what you mean about chains not stretching lol. I rode over to my friends house today and told him what was said to me on here. He already had the offending chain off the bike and when I was having a look st it, I noticed that eachlink was moving back and forth write a bit and the rivet holes were more oval than round! I guess even 0.5 mm over 108 links (216) rivets is quite a lot. Roughly 4 inches of unwanted slack......wow! Oh and he said the sprockets were 8 years old and the chain he thinks he purchased in 2006 lol.
The only thing that I have that old is my......................................:hss: Replace them and make sure lube them every 500 miles or sooner depend on riding condition. Good luck
I have a similar kind of question as the OP. With bicycle chains the method (I think) is to measure the length of a given number of links to check the wear, I was wondering if there is a similar method with a bike chain?
Chain wear happens mostly inside the rollers, on the pins. A good measure of wear is how far a chain (off the bike) will flex sideways compared to a new or less worn chain. The more bend, the more the accumulated pin and roller wear. (Place chain on floor as it is on the bike, with links horizontal.) ATTACH=CONFIG]19315[/ATTACH]
Good point, thanks for reminding me of that. I've taken chains off our old beater bikes that you could literally bend in half!:biggrin:
