Chain wear

[DaveB]

My XT has done just under 6000 miles,stays on the road and dosnt get thrashed.I was always led to believe that big singles ate chains for breakfast but mine`s been adjusted twice and seems like plenty of life left in it yet,can someone please give me a rough idea of how long my chain should last.

[FredXTZ]

If you have an original Yammie kit with endless chain and indeed always stay on the road, it should last at least 22.000 km. The kit on my 3TB did.

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

[Barry Johnson]

Hi Dave

If your chain is a sealed 'o' or 'x'-ring type, then it should not wear significantly for many thousands of km's. This is because the 'o' or 'x' rings hold in the oil that lubricates the inside of the chain (i.e. as it bends around the sprockets).

You still need to oil the chain, but only to lubricate where the chain and sprocket make contact.

Having said all that (which is the same as what was said in a previous post somewhere), the chain on my 3AJ (which was on it when I bought it) wore very slowly for the first few thousand kms, then stretched very rapidly over the last 1,500 - from stop 5 right up to stop 9 (when I bought it, it was on stop 3). This last stretch, no pun intended, was all in a 3-day period of fast on-road riding.

I suspect that some of my already worn 'o' rings failed due to the heat generated by the chain at highway speeds. This means the internal oil would have escaped, and the chain would have worn very rapidly - stretching as it went. This theory is borne out by the sprockets, which are still in very good condition, indicating that the wear is in the chain rather than on the sprockets.

Some 'o' and 'x' ring chains come with a 24,000 km guarantee.

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Barry
3AJ Tenere

[FredXTZ]

Barry : 24.000 km? That means that we would never have to buy chains again. What are the rules of the game?
I think the wear can't be in the chain and not in the sprockets, because when the distance between the chain links gets bigger, in theory the distance between the sprocket teeth gets bigger also. That's why it's no use replacing 1 of them. Some people say it is. Am I wrong?

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Fred, XTZ660, Holland.

[KlausXT600]

yes fred you are right.
but:
good-quality o- or x-ring chains will last more than 20000 kms, on-road-riding assumed.
off-road is something different of course.
kedo in germany sells d.i.d. chain sets in VM-specification with 24 month/24000 kms guarantee (on-road!).
the last two d.i.d.-sets i used did slightly more than 24000 kms (without automatic chain greaser).
now i did 17000 kms with a d.i.d x-ring VM and it was just last week when i did the first adjustment on the chain. but this is due to my automatic chain greaser of course ;-)

regards
klaus