chain circlip keeps falling off

facetious? "facile", surely.

 

You can't get a shaft-drive GSXR1000 though.

 

My Bandit has cost me about £240 in chains and sprockets in about 6
years[1].

[1]An original chain, and two replacments[2].
[2]Currently running a DID X-ring.

 

"fat" is the main problem.

 

Cuntybollox wrote

A belt drive?

 

I see. Leisure only riders eh? Get through three or more chain and
sprocket sets a year, at £100 a time, and it comes to one heck of a lot
more than you pay to top up the oil in the shaft drive housing. And do
it on a pension as I'll be doing very soon and you'll see the benefits
of the shaft. And add the regular lubricants for the chain, and the faff
of doing it. Give me the easy life any day ;-)

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Very true, more's the pity. However, I wonder how many 150bhp hooray
Henries really get the most out of their steeds, and how many only get
them for the image. You can't get the best out of them on our public
roads, only the racetrack, which is the place where the chain makes
sense.

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Do they? Give me the figures, not the old wives' tales. You'll find
that the difference is trivial for a new chain, where it has a
marginally better efficiency, but an old, worn, stretched, dirty chain
and sprockets loses out on the shaft which keeps its efficiency a damned
site better.

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Actually you'll find the percentages are closer to 98% for the new chain
and sprocket set, dropping as time goes by, and about 96.5% for the
shaft, varying very little over its lifetime, which is the life of the
bike.

But! The transmission only accounts for something less than 5% of the
total friction in the whole setup, with the worst power sappers being
things like the tyres, the inefficiency of the engine itself, gearbox,
and the drag at speed due to the aerodynamics of the bike and rider.
This makes the extra 1.5% friction of the shaft, out of the 5% or so of
the total transmission system, something like 0.00075% of the total
power drain from all friction associated with the setup.

That doesn't amount to much of a power drain in my books, though it
might just give the edge on the race track.

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Dave Swindell says...

To get through 3 or more chain and sprocket sets I'd have to be doing
over 60,000 miles a year, I'm clever and use a scottoiler filled with
top quality chainsaw oil[1]. Given that I do about 20K miles in an
average year, I'll be fitingt one a year to my bike, at a cost of about
120 quid retail. My reason for disliking shafties comes from hating the
way they **** up the feel and handling of a bike, plus the huge amount
of rotating mass they add to the unsprung weight of a bike.They feel
fucking awful, and ruin the enjoyment of ridiong anywhere near fast on
the road. I can see why you have a shaftie for pulling a sidecar, merely
checking a chain with a fucking canal barge strapped to the side of your
bike must be a proper pain in the arse.

[1] One tenth of the cost of Scottoil

 

Can be even cheaper if a nice chap like Gyp gives you a gallon free gratis
and for nothing.

 

Any Speedyspic recommended brands, or whatever I can find at
B&Q/Hombase/Wickes etc.?

 

This is where my experience differs from yours. Depending on
how long the bikes lifetime is and how well the shaft drive is
designed, built and maintained you may have to rebuild or
replace parts of the shaft drive.
At least some of BMW's models have been capable of
extremely high mileage before going to join their forefathers
in the Bavarian scrapp yard, but far from always without
a shaft drive failure.
A friend of mine with a K75 (always serviced properly) had
to rebuild the shaft drive at something like 200 000 km
(IIRC) and the bill for that was quite high. Just for fun I
tried to guesstimate how much he would have spent on
chains, sprockets and lube if it had been a chain drive
instead. The numbers were fairly even.

Don't get me wrong, shaft drive is wonderful. But I find
it strange when it becomes a religion. And if someone
rides a smallish trailie, you can shout shaft drive until
you're blue in the face without really helping.

 

Does it? Give me the figures, not the old wives' tales.

What's the efficiency of an old chain?

 

OH- wrote

And verily it is said of them that for as long as they follow in the way
of the shaft then shall there always be two wheels upon the road. And
this is a Good Thing.

 

Heh, he was at the top of mine...
--
O
1 Black, shortly to undergo extensive surgery.
1 Red, undergoing lightweight surgery. -----
1 Blue, for Power-Ranger baiting. | o |
Numbers ... | o |
Stuff ... | ooo |
Life ... -----

 

Work harder...
--
O
1 Black, shortly to undergo extensive surgery.
1 Red, undergoing lightweight surgery. -----
1 Blue, for Power-Ranger baiting. | o |
Numbers ... | o |
Stuff ... | ooo |
Life ... -----

 

Statto says...

I bought environmentally friendy Husqvarna stuff from our local chainsaw
suppliers, all towns have at least one. If you can't find them, try a
specialist lawnmower suppliers, they usually deal in other heavy duty
gardening equipment and sundries. 10 quid for 5 litres is what I paid.
You can buy some non enviro-friendly stuff for 5 quid for 5 litres, but
it's getting harder to find now the EU regs have changed.

 

You're right, of course. We have all had different experiences. All I
can say is that I, personally, don't know anyone who has had a shaft
failure. And as for 200,000 km, that's a pretty good mileage for any
bike before a major overhaul of any kind. I've just replaced the
engine/gearbox in my XJ900S Diversion after 73,000 miles (something over
100,000 km) of towing a sidecar, and I count that as not good.

No religion I assure you, quite the opposite, in this newsgroup it's the
chainie riders who've got religion. They impute qualities to chains
that are quite outlandish sometimes, even though a few of them are
nursing tongues in their cheeks while they do it ;-)

As you say above, it's horses for courses. But the vast majority of
sprod bikes are treated like tourers, and never ever have their
gubbinses tested to the extreme. So the "advantages" of the chain are
completely wasted on them, and the disadvantages just get in the way of
enjoying their riding. Unless, of course, scrabbling round on your hands
and knees, spraying lubricants all over the shop, adjusting recalcitrant
back axles, and forking out a large lump of money every 10,000 miles or
so is supposed to be part of this fun. But give me an easy life any day
;-)

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I do 30,000, and with chainies my average was 10,000 miles life. But I
haven't had a chainie for quite some time now and I know the technology
has improved.

This has been described by others, but I've never noticed any
significant difference myself. Any difference due to the shaft drive
seems to be masked by the difference between the bikes themselves.

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