Which is the best product to Lube a motorcycle chain

"He dreamed that he stood in a shadowy Court,
"Where the Snark, with a glass in its eye,
"Dressed in gown, bands, and wig, was defending a pig
"On the charge of deserting its sty."----Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting
of the Snark"

 

"Puff, puff, give!"

 

Don't bogart that joint.

"The Jury had each formed a different view
"(Long before the indictment was read),
"And they all spoke at once, so that none of them knew
"One word that the others had said.

"You must know ---" said the Judge: but the Snark exclaimed "Fudge!"
"That statute is obsolete quite!
"Let me tell you, my friends, the whole question depends
"On an ancient manorial right."
---Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"

 

I have always used gear oil, because I've heard it has properties engineered
into it which make it suitable for a chain.

It's supposed to behave kinda like corn starch and water, we used to play
with this as kids. It flows if you pour it, but if you suddenly put stress
on it, it tends to turn into a solid. Just the thing for a rolling contact.

Something I haven't noticed mentioned is that the outermost roller of the
chain isn't permanently lubricated like the bits protected by the lubricant
captured by the o-rings, and you probably want some proper lubrication where
the sprocket tooth strikes this roller as well, because alot of wear occurs
there, which tends to effectively increase the pitch dia of the sprocket,
and the chain is forced to wear to accomodate this.

I apply it at the end of a ride,about every 600 Km, the excess drips off
while it's parked. There's still some thrown off, but some gunk on a paint
brush gets rid of it all when I give it a wash to get the bugs off.

My 1200 has 36000 Km on it, It tried to measure the chain stretch a with a
pair of Verniers not long back, I took a measurement of the distance between
a number of links, with a weight hung off the bottom, inside and outside the
rollers and came up with an average. I think it was something like 0.008"
average per foot. I don't know what the current acceptable max stretch is
but I think in an old Triumpth manual I had, it gave 1/8th in per foot! Holy
crap. I would have thought your chain and sprockets would have been toast
long before this.

My vote is for gear oil anyways...

P.

 

From what I've read, it also contributes to leaking forks. The smart move,
obviously, is to always use *fresh* seal oil on fork seals.

It might explain why daily bathing is a fairly recent invention.

-Scott

 

It's worn out.

0.004 to 0.005 per link is the typical wear limit in my manuals.

My Honda CR250M's manual tried to claim that the chain was worn out
when the wear per link was only 0.001.

I called bullshit on that idea...

"In the matter of Treason the pig would appear
"To have aided, but scarcely abetted:
"While the charge of Insolvency fails, it is clear,
"If you grant the plea 'never indebted.'

"The fact of Desertion I will not dispute;
"But its guilt, as I trust, is removed
"(So far as relates to the costs of this suit)
"By the Alibi which has been proved."
----Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"

 

I have always used gear oil, because I've heard it has properties engineered
into it which make it suitable for a chain.

It's supposed to behave kinda like corn starch and water, we used to play
with this as kids. It flows if you pour it, but if you suddenly put stress
on it, it tends to turn into a solid. Just the thing for a rolling contact.

Something I haven't noticed mentioned is that the outermost roller of the
chain isn't permanently lubricated like the bits protected by the lubricant
captured by the o-rings, and you probably want some proper lubrication where
the sprocket tooth strikes this roller as well, because alot of wear occurs
there, which tends to effectively increase the pitch dia of the sprocket,
and the chain is forced to wear to accomodate this.

I apply it at the end of a ride,about every 600 Km, the excess drips off
while it's parked. There's still some thrown off, but some gunk on a paint
brush gets rid of it all when I give it a wash to get the bugs off.

My 1200 has 36000 Km on it, It tried to measure the chain stretch a with a
pair of Verniers not long back, I took a measurement of the distance between
a number of links, with a weight hung off the bottom, inside and outside the
rollers and came up with an average. I think it was something like 0.008"
average per foot. I don't know what the current acceptable max stretch is
but I think in an old Triumpth manual I had, it gave 1/8th in per foot! Holy
crap. I would have thought your chain and sprockets would have been toast
long before this.

My vote is for gear oil anyways...

P.[/QUOTE]

The simplest test is to try to pull the chain away from the sprocket.
If it can be pulled away, the chain and sprocket are knackered.

Leon

 

Phosphates have been banned from household detergents in the US for many
years now (maybe since the early 1980's? I'm too lazy to look it up).
Nitrates can cause algal blooms too, and farm runoff is typically high
in nitrates. Household laundry, etc. is typically pretty low in nitrates.

--
Later,
John



'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk.

 

I use chainsaw oil. It has a sticky consistency and doesn't throw off much.

John

 

So ask your family how they know whether or not they're overfertilizing.
Unless they've had someone do soil chemistry testing on the farm, and
come up with a picture (at some resolution or other), you really only
know when you back off enough to hurt the crops....which most farmers,
IME, aren't terribly interested in doing.

But whether or not farmers are over-fertilizing in large numbers is a
side issue. We know that nitrates are getting into the water, and if
they're getting into surfacewaters (lakes, rivers), then it's obvious
that they're not all going into the subsurface. Sources matter if you
want to try and reduce usage. Household usage was reduced (but not
eliminated) by removing TSP from laundry detergents. I'd be happy to see
less of the stuff in the rivers and lakes, and will leave it to the
professionals to determine which vectors make the most difference. If
they say farm runoff, well I'll believe them until someone shows me some
evidence to the contrary.

The point is, common sense, intuitions, and "farmers are cheap" type
arguments are unreliable, because you can come up with a bit of common
sense, or an anecdote to support almost any conclusion at all. What
matters is the evidence, which has been collected, even if I don't know
what it says is the most significant source of nitrates right now.
Phosphates from household cleaners used to be a much bigger source than
they are now, and that the removal of TSP from laundry detergents was a
direct result of studies finding lots of phosphates in water downstream
of sewage outlets.

--
Later,
John



'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk.

 

Interesting figure. I'm surprised it's so high (mileage, and fuel
economy, that is)

 

The Older Gentleman wrote

Some fairly recent figures here, in amongst the article, but they need
more work than I'm prepared to put in at this moment.

http://tinyurl.com/27nvev

 

Very, very interesting. Thanks.

I wonder why fuel economy ranks so low as a US priority, when there are
so many really good economical performance cars out there?

Because fuel's cheap, I s'pose.

 

The Older Gentleman wrote

This'll hurt your brain - Bureau of Transportation Statistics :
http://www.bts.gov/

Too cheap, and we've these ****-witted ideas of centralisation that
encourage road use. And anyway, how are we expected to get to the
sodding East Midlands mega-Tesco after the oil's run out? Bah.

 

The Older Gentleman wrote

Weekly U.S. Retail Gasoline Prices, Regular Grade ($/USgal, inc taxes)
http://tinyurl.com/ibjj

This is excellent stuff, and the links look promising too.
Are there sites like this over here?

 

0.008" per foot is what I came up with, not per link, measuring across 10
links at a shot.

Actually I think I mean pitches.... what's the right definition of a "link"
anyway? ) Intuitively this is the distance between the rivets... but you
can buy a "half link" )

Maybe some potential material for George Carlin ...

Couldn't find a chain stretch spec in my shop manual, just some diagrams
showing an exaggeration of a normal and worn sprocket. You'd they could do
better for $100, the thing doesn't even have an index at the back. Seems to
me those manuals tend to be marginally adequate in their info sometimes. But
when you need one, you need one, and I've never been sorry I sprung for one.

My method probably has some flaws in it, but I got the idea that if I
couldn't get some obviously bad numbers, it's probably still OK.

P.

 

Suzuki repair manuals usually call for counting out 21 pins, which is
20 links plus one pin. Measure across the 21 pins with the opposite
run of chain pulled tight.

Multiply the pitch times 20 to get the length of a new run of chain.

520/525/530 chains have the same pitch, with is 0.625 inches. The
service limit on a 520/525/530 chain is 12.60 inches. If a new chain
would measure 12.50 inches, 0.100 is the total wear.

0.100 divided by 20 = 0.004 inches of wear per pin.

A link has two side plates, two pins, two bushings, and two rollers.
But a half link has the same number of parts. It's just that the
roller
on the small end of the half link has to replace one roller of a
regular link.

The chain measurement diagram is in the maintenance chapter of my
GSXR750 shop manual. Most home repair manuals are taken from the
official manual.

If you have a chain that's worn 0.008 per pin, it's worn out and has
been for some time.

"When the verdict was called for, the Jury declined,
"As the word was so puzzling to spell;
"But they ventured to hope that the Snark wouldn't mind
"Undertaking that duty as well.

"So the Snark found the verdict, although, as it owned,
"It was spent with the toils of the day:
"When it said the word "GUILTY!" the Jury all groaned,
"And some of them fainted away."

----Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"

 

Dunno. I've had a quick look but can't find anything to compare.

There's this - Australian, but covers the UK.

http://www.aip.com.au/pricing/pdf/Weekly Petrol Prices Report.pdf

 

The Older Gentleman wrote

Mexico looks a cheap place to drive ...