dilbone
XS650 Addict
emzdogz the shinko is growing on me already...the avon speedmaster comes in tomorrow so once I get that one on I'll have a better idea of what I'm looking at. I'm sure it'll grow on me too even if it doesn't turn out to be the same as the picture I had in my head.
RockingThePartyDJ that was pretty slick...I'd like to see that with a true motorcycle tire
Well, I've been kicking around the idea of a chain tensioner because my chain keeps dinging the nylon spacer I put on the bottom of my electronics tank to avoid a major metal malfunction. The nylon is tough and all, but I'd like to keep it off of it altogether.
I searched around and ended up seeing a thread by ontherocks where he made a chain tensioner out of an old stock peg since it's already spring loaded. I wanted I couldn't resist the cheap idea so I did the same but instead of welding or bolting it on I cut a piece of tube off of the old swing arm and welded it to the bottom and planned to at least do some testing with hose clamps to the lower frame rail.
I picked up 4 long board wheels that were 60mm by 44mm wide with abec 7 bearings for just under $20. The durometer rating was 83a which was a little lower than I wanted but they were cheap so I wasn't going to be picky. Of course my paint scheme will be orange, so the wheels had to be orange too
Here it is clamped up...I wasn't sure exactly how tight I could get hose clamps, but they actually tightened up much tighter than I had anticipated. Besides that the stock footpeg spring is pretty weak and I didn't expect there to be much force on it anyway...or even how much good it would do.
I went out and slammed through the gears a few times with it keeping an eye on it and the hose clamps didn't budge at all. The wheel kept bouncing up and down as I was riding along and when I got home the chain hadn't appeared to make any contact with the nylon spacer below the electronics tank. Even with that weak spring it seemed to be doing something of value. After a few miles of riding I looked at the wheel and it doesn't even have so much as a scuff on it from the chain...
While at the depot picking up the hose clamps I actually picked up a husky spring clamp as well to see if I could give this tensioner a bit more...tension.
Out came the spring and I gave it a whirl. I had to drill a hole in the front of the peg base because the spring was wound in the opposite direction of the stock spring. I gave the upper end a back bend for more tension at the top of the pegs movement and bolted it up.
It is much firmer now. Slapped it back on there and tightened down the clamps even more than last time, but I haven't taken it for a ride yet. I was actually going to make a 4 bolt clamp type mount using another section from the swing arm on the bottom of the frame rail, but these hose clamps seem to be holding extremely tight right now. I'll keep and eye on them and I'll probably go ahead and make the clamp for it, but for now it will let me continue to test. Tomorrow I'll have to take it out and see how this new spring does...it's actually holding tension on the chain much better than the stock spring. The stocker may have been able to take some of the slack out of the chain at certain moments of riding, but this spring should be able to do a much better job of maintaining a steady tension in the chain...we'll see.
RockingThePartyDJ that was pretty slick...I'd like to see that with a true motorcycle tire
Well, I've been kicking around the idea of a chain tensioner because my chain keeps dinging the nylon spacer I put on the bottom of my electronics tank to avoid a major metal malfunction. The nylon is tough and all, but I'd like to keep it off of it altogether.
I searched around and ended up seeing a thread by ontherocks where he made a chain tensioner out of an old stock peg since it's already spring loaded. I wanted I couldn't resist the cheap idea so I did the same but instead of welding or bolting it on I cut a piece of tube off of the old swing arm and welded it to the bottom and planned to at least do some testing with hose clamps to the lower frame rail.
I picked up 4 long board wheels that were 60mm by 44mm wide with abec 7 bearings for just under $20. The durometer rating was 83a which was a little lower than I wanted but they were cheap so I wasn't going to be picky. Of course my paint scheme will be orange, so the wheels had to be orange too
Here it is clamped up...I wasn't sure exactly how tight I could get hose clamps, but they actually tightened up much tighter than I had anticipated. Besides that the stock footpeg spring is pretty weak and I didn't expect there to be much force on it anyway...or even how much good it would do.
I went out and slammed through the gears a few times with it keeping an eye on it and the hose clamps didn't budge at all. The wheel kept bouncing up and down as I was riding along and when I got home the chain hadn't appeared to make any contact with the nylon spacer below the electronics tank. Even with that weak spring it seemed to be doing something of value. After a few miles of riding I looked at the wheel and it doesn't even have so much as a scuff on it from the chain...
While at the depot picking up the hose clamps I actually picked up a husky spring clamp as well to see if I could give this tensioner a bit more...tension.
Out came the spring and I gave it a whirl. I had to drill a hole in the front of the peg base because the spring was wound in the opposite direction of the stock spring. I gave the upper end a back bend for more tension at the top of the pegs movement and bolted it up.
It is much firmer now. Slapped it back on there and tightened down the clamps even more than last time, but I haven't taken it for a ride yet. I was actually going to make a 4 bolt clamp type mount using another section from the swing arm on the bottom of the frame rail, but these hose clamps seem to be holding extremely tight right now. I'll keep and eye on them and I'll probably go ahead and make the clamp for it, but for now it will let me continue to test. Tomorrow I'll have to take it out and see how this new spring does...it's actually holding tension on the chain much better than the stock spring. The stocker may have been able to take some of the slack out of the chain at certain moments of riding, but this spring should be able to do a much better job of maintaining a steady tension in the chain...we'll see.
