Chain maintenance

I have a year-old Honda 750 ACE Shadow Cruiser and want to know the best
way to maintain the chain.

The manual says to use 90 weight gear oil, which I did for a while, but it
gets very dirty and can fling off onto the saddle bags and hub. Then I was
told at the bike shop one day that no one uses gear oil on their chains -
that I should use the spray on lubes instead (like silkoline). I'm currently
using a blue spray bottle that kind of 'gums up' after being on for a bit.

However, there never seems to be any lube remaining in the center of my
sprockets (where contact is actually made) and I seem to be getting
excessive chain wear for only 8500 km. This in spite of spraying often
(every 200 - 300 km).

Now I'm thinking of switching back to gear oil and applying before every
ride. Is this crazy or what? There is always lots of lube (even if dirty) at
the link-joins of the chain, but seems to be forever dry where the chain
links contact the sprocket.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Tom

 

How can you go wrong, following the manual's instructions? The main
reason for using 90 weight gear lube is to keep the chain from
*rusting*, it has all the grease it needs to lubricate the hardened
steel pins sealed behind the rubber o-rings. Original equipment chains
usually have a special wide, flat o-ring, instead of the
strangely-shaped "low friction" o-rings in after market chains...

When the mechanic or part$ guy at the $tealer$hip tell$ you that $ome
$pecial $ticky $tuff in a $pray can is better for your chain than what
the manual recommends, don't you sort of figure the $tealer$hip might
be making a profit off each can of $pecial $ticky $tuff? And doesn't
the part$ guy make a comi$$ion if his department makes a lot of $ale$?

Would they make any money by sending you off to some auto parts store
to buy 90=weight gear lube?

And that "gum" you noticed on your chain does nothing to lubricate your
chain, it just gets gummy to keep whatever lube you've managed to spray
onto the chain from flinging off. Road dirt and grit will stick to a
sticky chain, too...

The worst thing that can happen with that gooey shit is that it can
*glue* your special wide o-rings to the side plates of the chain if you
don't follow the instructions on the can. The can will say to spray
that sticky stuff on the chain while the chain is HOT, after a ride...

But, how many times do you get home and have something important to do,
so you hold off on spraying the chain until it gets cold? And then
maybe you don't have time to ride the bike to warm up the chain, you
grab a few minutes to spray the chain, and then you have to do
something else important, you never get to ride the bike. And that
gooey crap gets thicker and thicker and gooier and it glues your
o-rings to the side plates of the chain...

And then, early Sunday morning, your bud calls up and says, "Hey, dude!
Let's *ride*!" And you roll your bike out of the garage, get your motor
runnin', head out on the highway, and down underneath your sprocket
cover where you can't see it happen, your o-rings start splitting and
spitting out of the chain...

Then a week or so later, when you're cleaning the chain, you notice
little silver metal speck on the chain, and some places you see bright
red rust and you look at your $200 original equipment chain and notice
that three or four o-rings are like totally *gone*...

So you call up the part$ guy at the $tealer$hip and he tell$ you the
bad new$, that a new original equipment chain will cost you $200 and
the $procket$ are another $200, but he can $ell you and aftermarket kit
with a low friction o-ring chain for only about $150, and you think
thats a pretty good deal so you let the $hop mechanic at the
$tealer$hip in$tall the aftermarket kit...

And then only about 10,000 miles later, using that $pecial $ticky $tuff
in the convenient $pray can, you find yourself replacing the chain
every 10,000 miles and you resign yourself to that fact of life...

Well, when you first took delivery of your Shadow, the chain was coated
with some sticky thick white lithium grease that took up all the space
between the rollers of your chain and the bushings they spin on. The
chain was adjusted accordingly. After the first few hundred miles, the
lithium grease was all gone and the chain seemed like it needed to be
adjusted...

If you'd been applying the $pecial $ticky $tuff in the convenient $pray
can at the point where the roller meet the side plates when the chain
was still HOT after a ride, that $pecial $ticky $tuff would have
penetrated between the rollers and the bushings. Then, the next
morning, when the chain was COLD, you should have adjusted it...

(A guy I know said that he used nothing but PJ-1 Blue and that his
original chain on his Kawasaki ZX-10 lasted for 34,000 miles, lubing it
hot after a ride, and adjusting it cold the next morning.)

I go down to the local auto parts store and buy a quart of 90 weight
gear oil for about $3.00 USD, and I apply one drop to the point where
the roller meets the side plate. I do this around the entire inside of
the chain while rotating the rear wheel backwards. Then I put a drop on
the same point of each link while rotating the wheel forward. I leave
the motorbike parked overnight so the excess gear lube can drip onto a
piece of old carpet...

One application of gear lube is good for about 300 miles, and the clean
up is easy, compared to the $pecial $ticky $tuff in the convenient
$pray can.
I wet an old rag with kerosene (paraffin to Brits) and wipe the chain
and wheel off...

 

TRy Chainsaw lubricant VERRY sticky and seems to stay on for ages

 

Doesn't this drip oil on the outside of the chain? I use a different
technique on my chains. I clean them using kerosene, WD40, whatever and
then lube the INSIDE of the chain so fling moves the lube toward the
outside if at all. I can't see any benefit (or slight benefit) to
hitting a running chain with oil placed on the outside run.

 

Are you talking inside/outside like left/right sideplates or like inside
of the loop, outside of the loop?

My scottoiler drops oil on the left (facing the front of the bike)
sideplates (well, sprocket/sideplate junction) from the inside of the
loop. It would be fairly easy to drop oil on the right sideplate in the
same location, but I didn't.

 

Inside the loop. I'm skeptical that you need constant lubing on an o
ring chain, but I can't see it hurting.

 

Mostly it means that I just never worry about the chain. I check it
visually to make sure that there's a bit of oil on it, and check the
tension every 1-2k miles. When the weather gets warm I turn the flow to
its lowest setting, when it gets colder I turn it up some.

I think that I've used something like 2-300cc of oil in 4-5kmiles, so
it's not putting much on there. I get a bit of fling on highway travel,
some spotting on the underside of the left-side tail and wheel, but
nothing much, and it just wipes off afterwards.

I've heard from various people that an automatic oiler really shines in
two places:
long-distance touring, where small improvements in lubrication/cleaning
add up to substantially longer life, and where doing maintenance like
cleaning/lubing the chain is a bit more difficult.

wet-weather riding where the water would otherwise wash your lube off
the chain pretty quickly.

I'm no expert, but if the oiler is responsible for my not having to
adjust or clean the chain, I'll take that. Over the expected life of the
bike (I don't plan on selling it, ever) the $140 isn't too bad. Should I
ever get a new bike I can take the oiler over to it.

 

I just clean the chain with WD-40 when I do an oil change -- about
every 3000 miles. I lube it lightly with PJ-1 between rides or every
couple of hundred miles if I've had a lot of short trips. The PJ-1
dries to a tacky film, and as long as it feels tacky to the touch, I
feel I'm ok. I get 20,000+ miles out of chains, and I tend to get
caught in the rain a lot.

 

Does Scott oil also have a distinct pleasant odor?

Somebody on an e-mail list once said that Scott oil was just Marvel
Mystery Oil, but I don't know for sure, I've never bought any Scott
oil...

The lister said that Scott oil was OK for colder weather, but it was
too thin for southern California riding in the summertime when the
weather is 90 to 110 degrees F, so he used 90 weight gear oil in his
Scott oiler...

That was about the time I gave up on tacky aerosol sprays and changed
to 90 weight gear oil...

 

Yep Scotoiler is the one for me 17,000klms on a ST2 Ducati and I never touch
the chain at all - as far as I can see by the marks on the axle it has not
moved much since new - new tire and servicing as per scheds have been done -
no sprocket wear either.
Lushy
Australia

 

Mine doesn't. It more-or-less doesn't smell like anything. Certainly it
doesn't smell like gear oil.

[snip]

Well, the company now has a 'high-temp' oil made to solve just this
problem. I've not had trouble with my 'cool-temp' oil here in Indiana.
Of course, summer weather is somewhat cooler here than there. Mind,
plenty of people seem to think like your friend: just put whatever
you've got into the oiler.

 

Thankee sir. I was sure there had to be a reasonable substitute for
the Scot branded stuff. I'll be fitting mine this weekend. G'bye
sticky chain goo.

 

How about this theory (Stolen from Mick @ BrisBikers.com.au):


First you have to understand this only works on O-Ring chains.
None O-Ring chains MUST be lubed regularly on motorcycles.

How the chain works;
Don't want to patronise but you have to grasp this and all falls into place.

Basic Parts-
Side Plates (length and pitch to chain)
O-Ring (keeps factory lube in and grit out)
Hardened Pin (joins side plates for pitch & runs in the lube)
Outer Roller (SUPPORTS HARDENED PIN)

Nearly all the friction/movement on a chain happens between the Hardened Pin
and the Outer Roller. Once the Outer Roller makes contact with the Sprocket
it fundamentally should not move again. Only the Hardened Pin will move
inside the Outer Roller as the chain moves around the arc of the Sprocket.

Lubeing the chain enables it to pick up dirt and that gets caught between
the Outer Roller and the Sprocket, which is where the wear generally comes
from.

The dirt and lube mixed together, makes a nice paste for your Sprocket to
grind away on. If the lube penetrates the link past the O-ring, the chain is
basically going to fail because grit will work into it and wear the pin
thus wearing it out prematurely.

If you lube an O-Ring chain you are only lubeing the Outer Roller.

I know they say that the foaming lubes get past the O-Rings, but if that
were the case after heavy rain we would soon have rusted Pins inside the
Outer Roller. A water molecule is 3 parts - H2O (2 parts Hydrogen 1 part
Oxygen). The molecular structure of the lube would have to be bigger
(possible 3-5 molecules or more) and thus shouldn't get past the O-Rings.
And if it did water would also.You get the gist of what I am on about.


Yes, you can under lube. I have never said not to put something on the
chain. I just don't put the norm.

If you are going to go on a long ride more than 300klms then light lubeing
with anything other than wax.
I NEVER USE A WAX, IT STICKS TO THE CHAIN AND ATTRACTS DIRT.
Normally a foaming lube and wipe the excess of the chain after.

About once a month I wash the chain and get the nice shinny gold links
looking good. I use a mild detergent and sometime a bit of degreaser but not
under pressure. I will then put some CRC or the like on it to stop rust
forming.
I have never had a problem with the O-rings failing.

I have used this system for over 20 years now. It works for me, that's all I
can say.

 

Does that kind of bizarre thinking occur when an Ozzie has to stand on
his head to see the world right side up? Using Mick's notion, you might
get the idea that the wheel bearings supported the the motorbike
instead of the wheels and axles...

The eponymous "roller" isn't there to *support* the hardened pin at
all, I'd say that the case was completely the opposite. The pin is an
axle, about which the roller turns...

Rolling element bearings *roll*, transferring load from one part to
another part, hopefully with less friction than a rubbing part or one
covered with a film of oil...

(There were early self-lubing motorcycle chains that didn't have any
"outer" rollers at all. That type of chain was called "bushing" chain.
I haven't seen any such chain for a while. It was noisy in operation,
as each bushing had to *push* its way on and off the sprocket teeth
instead of rolling on and off...)

 

Where did the bushing go? There is an endless debate on
whether or not to lube O-ring chains. I'll only say that the
answer might be rather different in a dusty desert and
in wet north west Europe.
I'm in Sweden and have belonged to the sticky-gooey
stuff camp for decades but the last year or so I'm
trying the WD-40 method (and it seems to work quite
well).

But if you want to debate chain maintenance it will give you
more credibility if you get the parts and their function
right ;-)

 

I don't think it matters he that he overlooked the bush - the theory is
the same.

All he's getting at is that unless the o-rings have failed the major
wear components contained within them are protected by lube inserted
during assembly. As long as we can prevent the lube getting out or
contaminants getting in, the chain should be sound.

Conventional sticky chain lube can't get in past sound o-rings & it
also attracts dirt which will find its way to wear them.

A light coating of non-sticky lube on the outer roller (WD40,
Dri-Glide, Silicon, etc) is sufficient to protect the rollers &
sprockets from wear - the load on them isn't that great while the other
chain components are within their wear limits.

 

I just found some interesting info on "chains" at:
http://www.quality-cycle.com/truth_about_motorcycle_chains.htm

 

Yup. I can see that there are lots of things I need to "no" about
chains and how they "preform"...

While you're researching chain technology, do us engineering types a
favor and find out why the chain manufacturers talk about the "tensile
strength" of a chain in terms of several thousand pounds, but not in
terms of thousands of pounds per square inch and never talk about
dynamic shock loading in terms of ft/sec^2 or g's...

Enquiring minds want to know things like, "what part of the chain will
break first, if it's going to break at all", when we rev up our engine
and feather the clutch into the "sweet spot" at the drag strip
christmas tree...

Like, do chain manufacturers test their product by hooking it between
two tractors and try to pull it apart under steady load, or do they
attach one end of the chain to a bridge abutment and the other end to a
Harley and shove the motorbike off the bridge to see how long it take
to snap the chain?

And, if a link pin is soft enough to quad stake, how is it hard enough
to resist fretting wear?

And, if you do manage to stake a very hard steel pin into soft steel
side plates, what load will the pin shear out of the plates? What's the
Rockwell hardness of your typical side plate and the typical pin?

Please look all that up for us, Bummers. If you do a good job, we'll go
into the motorbike chain business together, equal partners...

 

Ok ... I guess I better start now....

 

You obviously missed my point about climate. In a wet and
possibly salty environment the corrosion will eat away on
all surfaces "outside" the O-rings and might even make the
metal next to the O-rings rough enough to abrade them.

For the all weather biker in this climate you need to add
oil often (automatic oiler being the rational method) or
use something sticky. You don't even have to ride the bike
to wreck the chain, just park it outdoors without a rust
preventive oil film on the chain.

So let's stop posting absolute truths about chain
maintenance and instead say
"this works for me in the hot desert"
or "good advise for around the year biking in Britain"
or "doubled my chain life when riding wet gravel roads"
and so on.