Something that has been bothering me since buying a new motorcycle has been the correct way to measure the tension of a chain.
In school I had issues getting proper chain measurements in agreeance to the instructors standards because she felt it should be (for example) 25mm of movement without the top part of the chain flexing at all...
I felt that you should move the chain entirely through it's motion and measure the distance traveled.
In the pictures I'm about to show you'll find the two techniques displayed. What are your thoughts on this?
Picture one. Chain tension at cold, resting height on side stand 70mm mark for baseline
Picture two:top of chain at the baseline. You can use the nylon chain slider as reference to compare the movement of the top of the chain.
Picture three: results of measuring chain tension with NO TOP CHAIN MOVEMENT (got between 25-30mm with very little to no flex in the top half of the chain)
That's the result of testing chain tension with no top half chain movement. If I do the same test by measuring at baseline, and pushing until the chain stops, the same motorcycle with no adjustment measures as follows:
Picture one:showing the difference between top chain movement at nylon chain slider
Probably a 5-10 mm gap between the slider and the chain at full tension
Picture two (still comparing this number to a baseline of 70mm) pressing upward on chain to measure distance traveled to calculate chain tension:
Nearly 50mm of chain movement with this method. So either the chain is 2x looser than the recommended tension of 30 mm, or it's just right.
How do YOU measure? And what do you recommend??
In school I had issues getting proper chain measurements in agreeance to the instructors standards because she felt it should be (for example) 25mm of movement without the top part of the chain flexing at all...
I felt that you should move the chain entirely through it's motion and measure the distance traveled.
In the pictures I'm about to show you'll find the two techniques displayed. What are your thoughts on this?
Picture one. Chain tension at cold, resting height on side stand 70mm mark for baseline
Picture two:top of chain at the baseline. You can use the nylon chain slider as reference to compare the movement of the top of the chain.
Picture three: results of measuring chain tension with NO TOP CHAIN MOVEMENT (got between 25-30mm with very little to no flex in the top half of the chain)
That's the result of testing chain tension with no top half chain movement. If I do the same test by measuring at baseline, and pushing until the chain stops, the same motorcycle with no adjustment measures as follows:
Picture one:showing the difference between top chain movement at nylon chain slider
Probably a 5-10 mm gap between the slider and the chain at full tension
Picture two (still comparing this number to a baseline of 70mm) pressing upward on chain to measure distance traveled to calculate chain tension:
Nearly 50mm of chain movement with this method. So either the chain is 2x looser than the recommended tension of 30 mm, or it's just right.
How do YOU measure? And what do you recommend??