Just changed my chain and sprokets

[taro]

What a pain in the rear that was. Anyway, I think I did everything right. I guess I'll find out on the way to work. My chain lasted just over 18k miles. By the looks of things I probably should have changed it out at about 15k miles. I didn't notice the warpage in the rear sproket until I pulled it, but when I looked at it off of the bike, I could see the wear. The front sproket had worn areas on the sides of the sproket instead of the teeth. I think the various noises that I was hearing were coming from the chain not being able to follow the sprokets due to it being stiff in various places. The chain was a mess. It was rusted in numerous links and could have stood by itself.

I thought that each time I was cleaning and lubing the chain and adjusting the slack that things were okay, but there is a night and day difference between the chain I just put on versus the one I just took off.

Photobucket is being slow so I'll post some pics later.

[taro]

I can't believe how smooth and quiet my chain is now. All the noise that I thought was from chain slop I'm pretty sure now were the links not tracking with the sprockets. Here's some pics of the old stuff.

[spdrkt ZX7R]

You should pay a little more attention to you chain. Proper maintenance can be the difference between you stranded on the side of the road and you making it home safe.

[JimmyD]

Or getting amputated from the knee down... a friend of mine, who is a pretty smart kid, rides around on an old rat bike '90 CBR and had his chain come apart on the highway. He actually got a new link put in it... over 24k kilometres on it. I mean, I dont want to call the kid stupid, but...

Although in those pictures the chain doesnt actually look that bad. The rear sprocket was a little pointy though. Glad you got the noise figured out. Some people get worried about "cam chain" noise when its actually their drive chain doing all the rattling.

[taro]

Points well taken. It's one of those things where I'm ignorant about something until I actually start getting into it. Next thing to learn about for me is the front shock.

[JimmyD]

Haha, I didn't mean to preach. I drove around with my chain dragging on the swingarm last year and didn't know any better, but I do now. You gotta learn somehow right?

[taro]

No worries Jimmy. I usually learn things the hard way, after something fails. Glad I got around to the chain before I did any damage.