[Andrew]

So I was cleaning the chain tonight for the first time and after I took off the guard I noticed some shallow grooves under the chain where it passes over the frame just in front of the rear wheel. I don’t think it’s the frame itself but it’s whatever is on top of that. Now that seems to me like it shouldn’t happen. Is the chain too loose?

[Rab]

The 3 bikes I’ve had all had a plastic rub plate on top of the swing-arm near the “engine end” of the swing-arm. Above the foot peg area.

It’s plastic, is flat and has a raised bar along the middle which goes in between the side-plates of the chain. If yours is shitted-up with lube and dirt, it might look like it’s grooved.

Your owners manual should tell you what the permissable chain slack is (measured with bike on side-stand). Usually about an inch of slack is good but check your manual. If it’s near double what the manual says then you must adjust it or risk throwing or breaking the chain (which can be very nasty).

Most say you should clean/lube your chain every 250-500 miles. I do mine every week-end (at ~300 miles) and paint on (and wipe-off) 80W-90 gear oil for lubrication instead of that sticky spray goo lubricant (which seems to form a grinding paste).

[Andrew]

It may be plastic. I’ll have a closer look tonight.

[ilnam]

my chain had too much slack, so I checked the manual for increasing the tension. It was not the erector set instructions that I was used to. I figured this is pretty basic maintenance, but I suck. I looked for a service manual for my 07 gs500f, but the ones online are for ’89 – ’06. I’m not sure what’s up with the ’07 and ’08, but there was only one site that listed an ’07 manual, and I wasn’t sure if that was correct or just their typo. So I guess I can call a dealer and get one from them right? I went back to the OM and the instructions regarding cotter pin, axle nuts, and inline sprockets (with no pictures) still seemed too complex for me. It’s currently with the mechanic, but how doable is?

[Author]

Posts