chain life for Yamaha xv250

Hi all, maybe this is one of those "how long is a piece of string"
questions, but I'm just wondering, cos I don't think mine has lasted as long
as it should ...

I got my first bike in June last year, a 92 Yamaha XV250. The guy had to
replace the back tyre for the rego, and that's still going strong, but I had
the chain and sprocket replaced in February, and now it's pretty well due to
be done again. I got a heavy duty standard chain, figuring that a 250
probably wouldn't really need an O-ring chain, but maybe I should have just
spent the extra $?

I've done a lot of k's of course ... I average nearly 400 a week, and it's
just clocked up 20,000 ks since I bought it. So I don't know if that's about
average life expectancy or not.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 15 Oct 2003 23:19:49 +1000

For a non-orring chain? yup. IN fact very good for one not running in
grease.

Zebee

 

How do you know when the chain needs replacing?
or should you just replace the chain with the sprockets whel they start
wearing baddly?
Thanks

 

They'll begin to stretch (ok, so they don't stretch, they wear out more
rapidly. The metal on the rollers and the metal on the pins etc start to
wear giving that 'stretching' idea) and need adjustment more often. When
you have to start adjusting the thing every few weeks it's pretty much
shagged. If you pull the chain backwards off the rear sprocket in a
direction parallel to the ground and the chain comes away from the sprocket
any more than about 3 or 4 mm it's pretty shagged too! Alot of the time
it's a case of how far are you prepared to push it!

Cam
'00 ZX6R

 

20,000 ks is pretty sweet out of a standard chain. I wouldn't be
complaining anyway. They're cheap and you can lube them up quite easily. If
you are interested in extending the chain life think of putting something
on like a Scottoiler etc, they do wonders. Still yet to get around to
putting on one myself, but they're exxy to buy in the first place. Ah well,
atleast you can take them off and take it with you when you change bikes.

Cam
'00 ZX6R

 

Aren't sprockets supposed to look long in the tooth?

 

Someone let Colin King at loose on an
internet connection and the result was:

GAW people these days!!...you adjust the chain till it wont any more, then
remove some links and go again...and again...then the front sprocket will
start rounding off, eventually the teeth on the front sprocket will
dissappear and it will start slipping, THEN you fit new chain and sprockets
If you get 20K out of a standard chain (which is quite good) you should get
50 000 using this method.

I would recommend ignoring this advice, it is for amusement purposes only,
failure to maintain chain drive correctly may result in loss of control of
the motorbicycle.

 

It depends, of course, on the chain too... I'm used to getting 40
or 50 thousand km out of a chain on the Spada, I _usually_ use a
good quality o-ring chain (RK brand usually, 'cause thats what
the local place stocks). A while back, they were out of RK
chains, but told me these "ISIS" brand ones were "almost as
good", and only half the price... So I tried one. 6000km later I
had to replace the chain again, and it took the sprokets out with
it :-(

I've now got over 30,000km on its replacement RK chain, and I've
only just tweaked the adjustment for the first time...

It seems to me that $130 odd for "the best 428 o-ring chain
you've got" is a *lot* better value than a $70 crap chain...

big (oh, and it helps if you keep it clean and keep it lubed...)