I bought my katana a few months ago and finally got around to tighten the chain. There was a total of about 5 inches of play in it. While riding there wasn't anything that would scream out to me that the chain was so loose (I guess, as I'm new to motorcycles). After cleaning the lubing the chain multiple times I measured the play and it was so much. I looked up to see how much there should be and it was between 0.8-1.3 inches. I tightened the chain to a tension of 1.25 in total play WITHOUT my weight on the bike. My questions are:
1. Should I be measuring the chain's play while someone my weight is sitting on the bike or is it with no extra weight added?
2. When the bike is on the center stand and I roll the wheel with my hand, you can hear the links as they go over the sprockets... Is this normal? You can also hear it when I'm sitting on the bike and rolling forwards or backwards.
3. Seems like the bike's suspension is tighter - is this due to the chain being too tight?
4. This is the one that worries me the most. Last night after tightening the chain, I took her out for a spin. Once I get into 3rd gear and hammer it, at about 8-9k RPM's something isn't catching. The RPM's will shoot up and the bike won't go any faster. This type of thing would happen before I tightened the chain BUT it would hardly ever happen and not to that degree. It happened 3-4 times last night and really worried me because I don't want to screw anything up. Would it be the tranny, clutch, chain and sprockets? I don't know.
Thanks for your help guys and gals!
1. Should I be measuring the chain's play while someone my weight is sitting on the bike or is it with no extra weight added?
2. When the bike is on the center stand and I roll the wheel with my hand, you can hear the links as they go over the sprockets... Is this normal? You can also hear it when I'm sitting on the bike and rolling forwards or backwards.
3. Seems like the bike's suspension is tighter - is this due to the chain being too tight?
4. This is the one that worries me the most. Last night after tightening the chain, I took her out for a spin. Once I get into 3rd gear and hammer it, at about 8-9k RPM's something isn't catching. The RPM's will shoot up and the bike won't go any faster. This type of thing would happen before I tightened the chain BUT it would hardly ever happen and not to that degree. It happened 3-4 times last night and really worried me because I don't want to screw anything up. Would it be the tranny, clutch, chain and sprockets? I don't know.
Thanks for your help guys and gals!
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