Replacing chain with new sprockets question

[burkbuilds]

I'll let you know how it goes when I get the swap done, probably over my spring break in a couple of weeks. Easy may be right, it might be to much, but I think at worst I wont' really notice any change and at best, I'll probably just see the rpms down a bit at highway speed and maybe 2-3mpg increase.

Hey Easy, how's the weather in Illinois today? It is very nice here, I just came back from a little ride and it's about 60 degrees and very sunny, lots of bikes on the road around here today. It's supposed to be mid 60's here tomorrow as well. Hope you are having some nice weekend riding weather up there.

[burkbuilds]

mrlmnd 1,
I've heard good reviews on the dupont teflon spray, but I haven't tried it. I used chain wax on my GZ because that's what my dealer recommended to me but I can't say that I thought it was a great product. My GZ had a pretty rusty chain when I bought it though and it may have had more problems than any type of lube can correct. I cleaned it with kerosene every 500 miles and lubed it a lot with the chain wax , but I was having to adjust the slack out of it almost constantly and it was ready for replacement when I traded it in at around 12,000 miles. I'm not completely decided about my opinion on chain lubes yet. I don't think anything beats heavy weight oil for reducing friction wear in "meshing" type situations, like gears and chain/sprocket, however, in an exposed environment (bike chains) heavy lubes pick up more abrasive materials which are the worst thing you can put in a meshing situation. The opposite is true of lighter weight lubes, they don't offer as much protection themselves, but they also don't attract as many contaminants. I guess my general opinion is that if you clean your chain and lube it with something it will probably last a lot longer than not cleaning it and not lubing it, as to which product is the best in this situation, I'd say they all have good and bad characteristics and riding conditions could also play the main role into what you should use. For instance, are you always on dry, clean pavement, then maybe heavy lube would be best, are you on gravels and dirt a lot maybe something that wasn't tacky would work better. Then there's riding in the rain/wet conditions, what works best there, does anything stay on lube wize in a downpour? I wish someone would devise a test that legitimately demonstrated what works best under various conditions, but almost everything I've seen so far is just anecdotal. Do you use the Teflon? How has it held up for you over a lot of miles? I guess I got a little "gunshy" with all the Teflon products they came out with in the 90's trying to put it in all types of engine lubes and basically it all turned out to be a bunch of "snake oil" for that application, so I really only use teflon on my skillet that I cook eggs in each morning. But that doesn't mean that it couldn't perform a legitimate duty as a chain lube, just keep it out of my engine please.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by burkbuilds

Hey Easy, how's the weather in Illinois today? It is very nice here,

Oh, yea, just rub it in. :neener:
It wasn't "nice" there last week when I came through 4" of snow. :roll:

Actually it isn't bad today; some of the snow is melting and I am praying for 40 degrees to try out my new snow suit. Might be another week or two.

[mrlmd1]

I've been using the Dupont Teflon spray for the past 2 years, on my GZ, on a Ninja 250, on 3 bicycles (what the hell?) and on a moped, and I like it very much. It's clean, quick, easy, doesn't spritz all over the place when the sprockets and chains rotate, doesn't get sticky with dirt attached, and seems to do the job as well as anything else. And I don't do it every hundred or two hundred miles or on any particular schedule, just when I happen to think about it, but It probably really should be done at least once a month.

[Water Warrior 2]

I've been using DuPont for a while now. Not available in the GWN so it is a great reason to ride south of the border. Great way to spend a day.

[k1w1t1m]

If you really want to look after the chain lube it the oldfashioned way. Pouring oil over the outside of the chain does next to nothing except stop rust and briefly reduces wear on the sprokets.

Take the chain off and clean any junk off with something like diesel or kerosene.

Buy a tin of grease or find a suitable pan and fill with grease. Heat tin or pan of grease until melted, suspend the chain on a piece of wire and lower the chain into the now liquid grease. Hook the wire onto the side of the tin or pan (this is so you can pull the chain out without getting your hands in the grease. Turn off heat. Leave chain in the grease until the grease cools. Pull the chain out and wipe of the surplus grease.

[patrick_777]

Seriously, k1w1t1m, that's pretty retarded for this application.

This is an o-ring linked chain and doesn't need near that amount of treatment. Indeed, a heated grease lube will deteriorate the rubber o-rings in the links much faster than a spray lube every thousand miles. That "oldfashioned way" is for solid link, steel chains (like dirt bike chains) that do not have a pretty sensitive rubber piece jammed right in the middle of each link. In fact, there are many, many bikes I personally know, that lube exactly the way mrl, ww and many others (myself included) do it - using DuPont Teflon spray and spinning the wheel. Many of us have never, and likely will never, see a chain problem crop up. I will sometimes just use a slow-flow chain oil right after cleaning, just to get a good oil-basecoat on it before I continue with the Teflon spray though.

It is, however, not retarded to say that the chain should be taken off and cleaned with kerosene every other time you oil it.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by patrick_777

Seriously, k1w1t1m, that's pretty retarded for this application.

Maybe he doesn't know it's an O-ring chain.......or doesn't know how that kind of chain works.
Either way, I think "retarded" is a little harsh, don't you ??
Certainly not very friendly to a new member of the fold.

[patrick_777]

Sorry. I meant to say waterheaded.

[burkbuilds]

I swapped out the rear sprocket this weekend and put the new 40 tooth one on. While I had everything out I cleaned the chain and around the front sprocket really good and gave it a test run today. I didn't really notice anything other than that my rpms were down about 250-300 at 75mph, which was one of my goals with this change. The old sprocket and the new sprockets teeth were almost identical in shape and everything looked pretty good overall. Here's some pics if you are interested.


















I also installed the lubeman chain oiler while I was at it. I'm hoping that will drastically cut down on the amount of weekly time I spend doing chain maintenance and for $29 delivered I thought it was worth a shot.