530 Chain on an RGS

Every time I go to Andys lube about O ring chain comment on bike sites I get crowds arrive with flaming torches and pitchforks. I never lubed O ring chains on my Dirtbikes because of the grinding paste is made. After going through 2 rear alloys spokes way faster than I liked my bike now has a steel rear sprocket. There was a reasonable weight difference but so be it. I used to use a company in Oz called The Chain Gang, now defunct for supper strong off-road steel sprockets and was surprised to hear most Laverdas did use alloy sprockets on my first change. I cannot get my head around anyone NOT using an O ring chain, back before O rings you would be doing chain adjustments every couple of days especially on long rides. I can understand it if your racing a 125cc bikes as every tiny bit of drag on power needs to be removed but not so much on 1000cc road bikes surely.
 
You young whipper-snappers don't know what chain maintenance is ?

When I first got into bikes way back last century (in the 1960's) o-ring motorcycle chains hadn't been invented. That was when the most powerful bike on the road (probably a Vincent) was making about 50 RWHP. I used to buy Reynolds industrial chain for my 28 HP Yamaha 250. But even with that puny little engine, the bloody chain would stretch like buggery and needed adjusting every couple of hundred km. My mates and I used to boil our chains in Duckhams grease every couple of months to get some lubrication into them, but they still needed replacing quite often. When o-ring chain designed especially for motorcycles arrived on the scene, suddenly Duckhams grease and daily chain adjustments became a thing of the past, thankfully. 
 
On the recommendation of Keith Nairn I turned to Wurth dry chain lube!
It sticks like glue to the chain, doesn't coat the rear wheel and I have no detectable wear on chain or sprockets after 1000's of Km.
 
Like Cam I got into bikes in the 60s, my ride to work was a RT350 DKW, great bike. My place of employment  made various agricultural equipment some with chains. I used some on the DKW and fitted a new chain monthly. The chains were industrial with nylon bushes in the rollers. Super quite and smooth but nylon didn't take the load to well. On my bikes now I use non O ring chains and oil them with chainsaw bar and chain lubricant. It has anti fling properties and is more economical than made for bike stuff.
 
No shortage of chain bar oil in my shed, I brought a 44gal drum of it a few years back. I'll give it a try. I've been using the Scott Oiler oil applied by hand as I have a couple of litres of it.
 
Very innaresting thread. As for wet and dirty riding, once again my life in the bicycle world seeps into the conversation. Off-road bicycle chains can suffer some severe punishment so there are loads of lubes that go on wet and once the solvent evaporates are 'dry' (ie don't attract dirt particles) but still supposedly lubricate (remember, no o-rings in bicycle chains!). I can only assume a lot of modern lubes for o-ring chains on motos work the same way.

As for Duckhams? Have already told the sorry tale of a tinful ending up all over my mate's mum's (white) vinyl floor!!! Best wear I ever had from 'old style' chains was a brand I now fail to recall the name of (picked up somewhere in Elizabeth St, Melbourne, no doubt), but it probably lasted 2 or 3 times longer than anything else I'd used. Got me from Melbourne, up the east coast, up to Darwin and back plus more. Could never understand why it needed adjusting so rarely.

Not all o-ring chains are any good. Couldn't believe the wear on the chain on the ZZR250 i rode up the Hume and back to the Barry. Adjusted and lubed in Melbourne, absolutely fukked when I got back - and uneven wear at that. I think I readjusted it in Sydney, but maybe not. Was getting rather noisy on trailing throttle!
 
The other thing to remember is that o-ring chains have a lot less resistance after they have been lubed ... seems they turn corners better if there's a little something on the outsides of the o-rings.
 
Times have certainly changed with chains!
Used to boil the chains in Duckhams but bloody hell wouldn't have dared put it in the oven (Rob) :o Made a big enough mess (and stink) putting it on a kero burner out the back. Even with that you were always adjusting the chain and just about had to change chains very regularly. The O Rings certainly improved things.
Also remember my mate (Ducati 860) buying a couple of industrial chains because they were dirt cheap which he bought to use on one of our longer rides (He was assured they would be fine!). Quite a sight following him across the Hay Plains one night (I was only 18 ;)) when suddenly he was trailing a bright shower of sparks when his chain broke. Luckily the chain just slipped around the sprockets and didn't cause any damage. Also lucky he had another one in his bags, but replaced with something better when we got to a place that had one!!
Vince - I currently use a non O Ring chain on the triple. Same as Tom3C75 mentioned earlier, one of Andy Chains which he highly recommended. It was a few years ago now but they were dirt cheap and have to say they are quality. They feel very light and run very smooth on the sprockets, not worried about improving performance but I do like anything that improves mechanical sympathy and as I say they were cheap. It rarely needs adjustment and has lasted very well. I wish at the time I had bought 2. Bit of regular lubrication and cleaning and good to go.
I had considered maintenance issues on long rides but no problem. I did purchase an O Ring chain some time ago which I intended to put on before a long trip but the non o ring chain was in too good a nick and barely needed touching the whole time. I will use the O Ring next but this thing just keeps on keeping on. I have always run steel sprockets however I also now have an alloy sprocket waiting for next change.
 
I guess non O ring chains have improved over the last 30 years. I do remember sitting on the side of the road 160ks west of Adelaide with a Noton wearing a broken chain after a trip from Sydney. A mate went into the city and bought a replacement chain, that lasted till the rear sprocket, that also was part of the rear brake lost its teeth at Ballarat on the way back to Sydney. It came home the rest of the way on the train. The joys of riding old clapped out bikes.
 
It always seemed a strange thing to me that pommy bikes had the sprocket integral with the rear brake drum. I reckon if I owned one now, I'd figure out a way to separate them.

One of the best sprockets I ever bought was a plastic one (on a Kawasaki Z1B). Bloody thing lasted forever with no perceptible wear. It was also lighter than aluminium and ran quietly. They seem to have gone out of favour these days as I haven't seen one in the shops for donkey's years.
 
                                                    "Used to boil the chains in Duckhams but bloody hell wouldn't have dared put it in the oven (Rob) :o"

Well Peter it was the 70s and rental houses were cheap!! :D
 
Dellortoman said:
It always seemed a strange thing to me that pommy bikes had the sprocket integral with the rear brake drum. I reckon if I owned one now, I'd figure out a way to separate them.

One of the best sprockets I ever bought was a plastic one (on a Kawasaki Z1B). Bloody thing lasted forever with no perceptible wear. It was also lighter than aluminium and ran quietly. They seem to have gone out of favour these days as I haven't seen one in the shops for donkey's years.
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I think Red once mentioned using those nylon sprockets ... IIRC, Which IPDRC  :D . Not sure how they coped with burnouts, full-n dumping the clutch ...
 
Dellortoman said:
It always seemed a strange thing to me that pommy bikes had the sprocket integral with the rear brake drum. I reckon if I owned one now, I'd figure out a way to separate them.

One of the best sprockets I ever bought was a plastic one (on a Kawasaki Z1B). Bloody thing lasted forever with no perceptible wear. It was also lighter than aluminium and ran quietly. They seem to have gone out of favour these days as I haven't seen one in the shops for donkey's years.
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Not only pommy bikes.
It's the case of the smaller Laverda.

You machine the sprocket off and weld a new one on.
We change our sprockets much to often though.
I'm going from every 2 chains to every 3 on the SF2, which'll be about 60 000km.

Paul
 
SimonR501 said:
On the recommendation of Keith Nairn I turned to Wurth dry chain lube!
It sticks like glue to the chain, doesn't coat the rear wheel and I have no detectable wear on chain or sprockets after 1000's of Km.
Click to expand...

+1.  Not W?rth - who here in France won't deal with us non-professional scum - but a motocross spray bought off Internet.

3-4 years now (i.e. 10x'000s kms), on both O-ring and non O-ring chain. Seems to work well on both  (goodjob).

But used sparingly!  And not forgetting to regularly clean off dirt and grit as well, especially after rain (e.g. the return trip from Breganze.  My, did it rain that day ...).
 
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