WARNING: Keep chain tight

[James]

Take that as a warning to you all, apart from you guys with belt/shaft drive obviously!
Ive had a very slack chain for a while, and the back wheel adjusters are fully back. I was gonna knock a link out of chain sometime but never got round to it. Anyway this is how my sunday has been so far:

Just got home after a long push. Went for a cruise to my womans house and sadly didn't get to arrive. I was at the traffic lights near my house, saw a group of barely dressed tasty looking girls on other side of road, decided to turn a couple of heads by popping a wheelie. Set off from lights steady, dipped clutch, got revs high, let clutch slip-out increasing throttle as it bit. Wahay i thought, monster wheelie for quite a reasonable distance, must have turned heads. As front wheel starts to dip i suddenly hear a snatching-jumping noise, then back wheel locks up solid. Tyre yelps like fuck and brings me slipping and sliding to a halt.

Turns out my chain jumped off of sprocket got caught between nuts holding sprocket on and swinging arm and locked my wheel. So im there in middle of road, holding all traffic up, all eyes on me, and i cant even push bike out of way cos back wheel is solid. So i jumped off and dragged the bike sideways off of the road. By this time id noticed the girls i saw earlier were stood watching me with bemused looks on their faces
Luckily i managed to get wheel moving again by yanking bike backwards and freeing it off (the chain was trapped between nuts and swinging arm)
Now im pissed off because;
A) the sheer embarassment of making yourself look an arse
B) Im gonna be in workshop for half hour with my chain in vice bending links back into shape
C) My swinging arm has got a huge crease/bend in it where chain got trapped
D) I didn't get to my girlfriends house for some lurveing

I wish i had a digital camera to show some pics of it, youd be surprised how much damgage a chain jumping off sprocket can do.
Anyway musn't grumble.
Keep your chains tight boys, or youll cause more trouble than its worth

[Milo]

yeah, minesweeper wasn't maintaining his very well and in the end it jumped off. ended up costing him for a pair of sprockets and a new chain.
ALSO have you noticed the power increase from a slack chain to a properly tightened one? it really is worth it! a loose chain probably drains off about 15% of the power!

[James]

Cheers Milo, i didn't know a slack chain drained power, never noticed it doing this but then again it has been getting gradually slacker for weeks.
I was hoping id be able to get it tight and see how bike felt but it looks like im gonna have to cut a small section of chain out, buy another split link and put it all back together again.
Luckily ive already got another chain kicking around which is far too short but will do to cut a section off of.

I just wish id tightenned the bastard last week
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Like shit off a stick

[RFT]

My mate jim had his chain jump off the sprocket on his Suzi GS 750 last summer- doing 90 on the M5, chain comes off, locks in the engine end, destroys the side cover, bike slides across lanes, breaks on other side and he gets to the gard shoulder... Not good...

[Milo]

Yeah, a couple of my mates noticed it when i tightened theirs for them. I've tried to keep mine tight so never really noticed it.

[craigT19]

hmm my chain was soo long at rikers on sunday that the chain was touching the side stand
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Bikes owned :- 2001 nsr125, 1999 zx6r, 2006 yzf-r1, 2009 xmax 250, 2012 yzf-r1, 2015 MT-07
Current bike : - 2016 MT-10
BCF member pops. sadly missed 1945-2003

[retrofly]

Hi

Same happened to me a whaile back, cost me a couple of sproketa an a new chain too, and keep it lubed up too

Luke
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"The food was not undelicious"
-Homer Simpson (Exceptional beast : Underachiving Human)
www.geocities.com/retrofly