device to keep wheel alignment when adjusting chain

[Ribenapigeon]

Take one wood baton and attach cheap laser pointer to it lengthways with cable ties. Before adjusting chain attach baton to side of rear wheel with the laser pointing rear or forwards again use cable ties. Put bike on paddock stand. Straighten front wheel then switch laser on. Mark point on wall, fence, post etc where the laser hits. Then adjust rear wheel but making sure to keep laser on marked target point.

You can get fancy commercial versions of this but why bother when you can get a laser pointer for under a tenner. I was so chuffed with this idea last night I quickly made up one and tried it on the bike quickly before going to work. Works like a treat. I just lined up with a gatepost opposite my shed but anything would do and the further away the target the more accuratly it will work.

At last an idea that works

Next idea...... Laser filtering gap designator

[nowhere.elysium]

Alternately, you could use the 'bit of string' method, and save yourself the tenner.
____________________
'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[mrdelmonti]

^^

Keep It Simple Stupid

[Zen Dog]

Single-sided swingarm or shaft drive also work very well.

Zen Dog
____________________
Current - '94 VFR750FR (Dead), '00 VFR800FI, '11 600 Hornet - Previous - '11 CBF125, '10 Street Triple R, '92 MZ ETZ301, '05 TTR250, NSR125R, KMX125, "Honda" Win
My bike trip around S.E. Asia 2010/2011

[Ribenapigeon]

String method is a bit iffy plus you need a good amount of space. A laser is also very accurate.

[nowhere.elysium]

No it's not, and no you don't. Use a common reference point.

A laser is indeed accurate, although it is something of a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.
____________________
'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[Teflon-Mike]

30 years & I have never owned a shaftie or belt drive, yet I have never found anything beyond cleaning the adjuster marks and counting to be necessary
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[sidewinder]

Good idea in principal but the adjuster marks on the divvy are smack on .found this out when it went in for a mot
____________________
"Nitrous is like a cheap hooker, you want to hit it but are scared of the consequences

[illuminateTHE...]

[Ribenapigeon]

Welcome to 2012 Tef surely half the pleasure of bikes is tinkering and fettling?

[Teflon-Mike]

[Ribenapigeon]

Its still more accurate than string. Given the tyre is going to be fairkly true in terms of shape and as long as the wooden baton is good and straight then the aim point will be true, mybe not to the 1000th of a mill but good enough and surely better than the markings on the swing arm which going by posts here seem to be notoriously off.

[pinkyfloyd]

Alternatively you could draw a little line on your adjuster nuts, say vertically, and keep measure that way, if your lines are both pointing down and you have made the same amount of turns on each nut then your wheel is straight.

Pfft to laser pointers and the likes.
____________________
illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

[Teflon-Mike]

Think about it Booze, lay your lazer off by say 15 Degrees from parallel to the wheel centre line, mark point, what, 5m ahead of bike on wall, then pull the wheel back 5mm to tighten the chain.

Becouse of the angle of the Lazer, your dot is going to move sideways, WITHOUT turning the rear wheel in the swing-arm.

So, you re-align to your original lazer dot-mark..... and to do so have to twist the wheel in the swing arm AWAY from center!

Lazer is just a convenient means of making a light lever, which is a mechanism for multiplying angles over great distances to magnify differences.

BUT in this case, you are multiplying an error, not an accuracy; hence you will DECREASE the acuracy of alignment, not increase it.

Meanwhile, notoriety of poor alignmement marks is rather spuriouse. They are normally more than accurate enough. Problems tends to be:-

1/ People dont use them
2/ People dont bother cleaning them, SO they can use them
3/ People CANT COUNT!

Or the 'problem' is not with the alignment marks, but elsewhere on the bike.
- Buggered swing-arm bushes, and you alight to the arm, but the arms not straight to teh engine
- Buggered wheel bearings; you alighn axle to swing arm, but sprocket isn;t true to axle.
- Bikes 'Bent', swing arm has been twisted in a spill, or frame is out of alignment.
etc.

For the error possible, they are usually more than 'good-enough'.

Your suggestion, imaginative as it may be, is flawed, and not a solution to the real problem, at the root cause.

If the bikes bent or worn out, doesn't matter how accurateloy you try and align the sprockets, wont help fix the real problem.

If people cant work a simple scale.... then giving them a high-tech light lever system to use more wrongly, wont help that either.

If a high-tech light lever system is too expensive, then increasing tolerence of experimental error, from blue-peter style improvisation, neither helps them alighn sprockets more accuratley, nor more easily, and increases riosk of them getting it even more to cock..... and WORSE convincing themselves it MUST be 'spot on' because they used a 'Lazer'.....

Just been reading about the Long-Bow in the 100 years war.... stone-age technogy that, surviving and out-performing weaponry right up to the advent of cordite... IF used 'properly', and that's the trick to it.

Engineering, 'Technology' is the application of scientific knowledge to solve practical problems; and the GOLDEN rule is, before proposing a solution, be damn sure you know what the problem REALLY is..........

Is the problem that alignment marks are not accurate enough, OR is it that people are too dum or too lazy to use them properly?
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Ribenapigeon]

Tef, sure if the laser is at an extreme angle then I would get a leveraged reading that would be at an extreme as well, but for that to happen the wheel would have to be so massivly bent out of shape you need a new wheel not adjustment.

[Matt B]

You people obviously have too much time on your hands...

Turn the adjusters one flat at a time each, check alignment marks, tighten it all up, get on bike, go out and ride it!
____________________
stinkwheel: He had an animated .gif of a cat performing fellatio. It's not socially acceptable. It can have real life adverse effects on other people.

[Bomberman]