Chain adjustment help

BKtje

So about 160km from home I realise that the chain looks a lot looser than before (yes that's how technical I get with my maintenance, only thing i do is clean and lube the chain regularly). Anyway decide to drive home where I grab a ruler and measure it properly, seems to be about 35mm of play at the middle of the chain which is obviously too much (sticker says 20-30mm).

My first question is did i measure it properly (as far as you can tell from my description))?

My second question (if yes was the answer to the first) is how urgent tightening this chain is?
It's a bank holiday tomorrow here so my mechanic is closed and on friday morning I need to drive to the airport (about 300km motorway there and back). Would I get away with leaving it for 2 weeks till I have my 12k km service or is this something I should do ASAP tomorrow? As I said above, I have little experience with this sort of thing and have only the tools available that came with the bike (just watched a video of a guy doing it with just these tools so it is possible to do but he did have a center stand).

Which leads to question 3. If I do it myself how likely am I to seriously damage the bike by making a balls of it and then driving 300km to the airport and back?

I've just done over 160km of motorway riding (since I noticed it) without a visible problem so I'd be inclined to leave it for an expert but that's why I came to you guys for advice as I don't want to have an accident or damage the bike. If you do think I should do it is there anything imperative that I should remember?

Hope I've been clear enough for you guys to understand and thanks for opinions and advice!

lintdrummer

Not an expert but personally I wouldn't worry about it. It's not wildly outside the limits stated on the sticker (as long as the measurement was taken from the right spot). You'd know yourself if it was dangerously slack, it's not as if it's close to coming off the sprocket is it? You do have a good trip to do, but I can guarantee you that there are many, many bikers who go a lot further on a loose chain before realising it. I'd say all it'll do is add to wear on the chain and sprocket. But realistically it's not going to be noticable.
Tightening a chain is an easy job but if you aren't confident then it's probably better to leave it, especially if you're due to leave it in with a mechanic shortly anyway.

Flyin Irishman

Tightening the chain is an easy job, but if you're totally not confident about DIY you would be fine leaving it until you can bring it to the mechanic, worst case scenario is that it will wear your chain a little faster than if it were at the correct tension, but the chain/sprockets need to be changed eventually anyway.

If you do decide to try it yourself, like I said it's very easy, just allow plenty of time and be patient if you're new to working on your bike. Other than that the only advice is to make sure that you adjust both sides of the wheel to the same distance to ensure the wheel/chain is dead straight, and keep making tiny adjustments and re-measuring the play in the chain until it's within the 20-30mm

BKtje

Cheers guys! I have some time tomorrow so I might just give it a go anyway but good to know I don't HAVE to do it tomorrow

I think I'll order a centre stand anyway, always handy to have for the future.

blu3r0ri0n

BKtje wrote: »

Cheers guys! I have some time tomorrow so I might just give it a go anyway but good to know I don't HAVE to do it tomorrow

I think I'll order a centre stand anyway, always handy to have for the future.

It's easy you will have no bother, the tool kit that came with the bike should have everything you need.

Get yourself a Haynes manual for your bike. I bought one with each of my bikes, you might be able to pick one up from halfords.It will give you all the information you need on how to do maintenance on your bike, including chain adjustment.

BKtje

The bike will be sold not long after the 12k service for an upgrade but might get one for the new one.

BKtje

So I gave this a try this afternoon. I managed to remove cotter pin but the nut itself would barely move (just enough so that I couldn't get the pin back in :rolleyes:). Anyway managed to get the pin back in eventually but I guess I need a buy myself a torque wrench to go along with the paddock stand.

I'll leave it for the mechanic to do in 2 weeks. Spent two hours cleaning the chain till it sparkles so don't feel like a complete failure

Flyin Irishman

Ah well, Fair play for trying it anyway. Every marathon starts with a single step! Yeah, the OEM toolkit technically has everything you need, but proper tools will always make your life easier if you're working on your bike

BrokenArrows

BKtje wrote: »

So I gave this a try this afternoon. I managed to remove cotter pin but the nut itself would barely move (just enough so that I couldn't get the pin back in :rolleyes:). Anyway managed to get the pin back in eventually but I guess I need a buy myself a torque wrench to go along with the paddock stand.

I'll leave it for the mechanic to do in 2 weeks. Spent two hours cleaning the chain till it sparkles so don't feel like a complete failure

Ya same thing happened to me the first time i went to adjust the chain. Couldn't budge the nut. Lol.
You're better off having the torque wrench anyway. Since you're not used to doing the maintenance your better off tightening things to the exact torque settings.

zubair

BKtje wrote: »

So I gave this a try this afternoon. I managed to remove cotter pin but the nut itself would barely move (just enough so that I couldn't get the pin back in :rolleyes:). Anyway managed to get the pin back in eventually but I guess I need a buy myself a torque wrench to go along with the paddock stand.

I'll leave it for the mechanic to do in 2 weeks. Spent two hours cleaning the chain till it sparkles so don't feel like a complete failure

That's why you should have a persuader in your tool kit.

lintdrummer

Fair play for giving it a lash! If there's one thing that DIY teaches you, it's that there's no substitute for good quality proper tools! Makes life so much easier!
For reference, what you need (apart from the aforementioned persuader ) is a breaker bar. Not that a torque wrench would go amiss on the reassembly but you could damage it by using it to remove tight nuts or bolts. Breaker bars are cheaper anyway!

BKtje

I hammered it with my foot which got it moving but took a lot of kicks and the bike was jumping about so didn't want to do anymore.

Didn't think of grabbing the persuader

BrokenArrows

lintdrummer wrote: »

Fair play for giving it a lash! If there's one thing that DIY teaches you, it's that there's no substitute for good quality proper tools! Makes life so much easier!
For reference, what you need (apart from the aforementioned persuader ) is a breaker bar. Not that a torque wrench would go amiss on the reassembly but you could damage it by using it to remove tight nuts or bolts. Breaker bars are cheaper anyway!

Nah you're not going to damage the torque wrench undoing it so long as the wrench is rated higher than the force your putting into it.

Spend a bit of money and get a wrench rated for 200nm. You can get one from halfords for €100. http://www.halfords.ie/motoring-travel/tools-diy/tools-tool-kits/halfords-professional-torque-wrench-40-200nm

If you manage to put 200mn when undoing the nut then whoever tightened that bolt was a beast.

lostboy75

its really not recommended to use them to unfasten bolts though. its claimed that it can effect the calibration. i dont know the truth of it, but a breaker bar is a fractions of the cost of the torque wrench, so use a breaker.

Wossack

only so many tightenings/loosenings with a torque wrench before they need to be recalibrated - I aint gonna waste em loosening wheel bolts.. especially when the recalibration costs as much as an actual breaker bar

jimgoose

Wossack wrote: »

only so many tightenings/loosenings with a torque wrench before they need to be recalibrated - I aint gonna waste em loosening wheel bolts.. especially when the recalibration costs as much as an actual breaker bar

I have a Bahco BHS240 24-piece 1/2'' drive socket set that I picked up for a song in a builder's providers a few years back. This thing can reduce a bulldozer to componentry in minutes. I call it The Piecemaker.