Chain life question

Dustin

Dustin

Moderator
Visit site
So earlier in the year I installed a new chain and sprockets on my SV650. I went with JT steel sprockets and a WPS o-ring chain. This was sort of on the lower end of the price spectrum but I wanted to give it a try. Tensile strength was 9100lbs (same as the DID I was looking at) and reviews were good.

I have about 4500 miles on the chain at the moment and find that it is wearing out a lot more than I expected. I keep my chains well maintained and very clean and service it weekly or whenever I'm out in heavy rain. I'm finding about every 600-700 miles I need to adjust the chain. The factory spec for my chain is .8 to 1.2 inches of slack and I shoot for 1 inch when adjusting it; it often needs to be re-adjusted these days though.

Am I doing something wrong or is this a case of a cheap chain?

Next time around I think I'm going to go with a DID XVM (They're $69 at Rider's Discount through the SVRider forum!) but I'm wondering if anyone's experienced the same thing as me.
 
Last edited:
No, such experience with a chain, but it certainly doesn't sound normal. Most chains will stretch the most when you first put them on. After that they should rarely need adjustment, especially since you're doing a good job of keeping up with the maintenance.

Next time just spend a little more on a quality chain...
 
I had a bad experience with a cheap off name ebay chain. it was always needing adjusted and finally snaped somewhere around 1500 miles. did 2500 in damage. lessen learned now it has a ek-zzz, only have a few hundred miles on it but have not needed adjusted yet.
 
johnnyontherocks said:
I would say its the chain. I hope you did not pay a lot for it. I have almost 15,000 on my original chain and its near perfect.
Click to expand...

This is what I figured, I just wanted to hear from other people as well. I normally buy quality chains but I was interested to see how something a little lower on the price scale would perform. I believe I paid around $70 for it and considering I can actually get a DID ZVM2 chain for the same price, I think it was not good value.

I think I'll keep running this chain through the winter and let it take the abuse and get a DID in the spring
 
When i put the cheap one on it was only going to be till i could get a good one. when it broke i was doing around 60 shifting out of first gear getting on the highway. it hit places on the bike that were less than a inch away from me and if my wife would have been on the back the chain would have hit her for sure. it did 2500 in damage to the bike. i will always recomend the best chain from now on, and i would order a new one today. better safe than like me sorry. lol.
 
The chain on my Bandit needed adjusting about every 3 months. In bad need of replacement at 9k miles.
I've adjusted the FZ1 chain once in 1.5 years. I'm talking stock chains - but just sayin' maybe quality matters, and the Bandit chain was cheap? The Bandit did have more low end grunt, maybe that was it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top