[hougy]

how do you know when you need to clean your chain? Any benefits?

[The CyberPoet]

how do you know when you need to clean your chain? Any benefits?

You need to clean your chain any time there's sand, grime, goop or rust on it, with special emphasis on sand. Suzuki's own guidelines call for every 600 miles (1000 KM). In practice, if you use oil rather than wax and add a bit of oil every tank-up, you'll be able to extend that cleaning interval further because the excess oil will fling off and take debris with it.

Benefits? It will make your chain and sprockets last very significantly longer than ignoring the chain maintenance. It's not uncommon for an ignored chain to only last 3 to 8k miles before it snaps, while a very-well maintained chain can easily last 25-30k miles before it's simply stretched/worn enough to need replacement. Since sprockets wear at the same rate as the chain, and the combo [chain + sprockets] costs $150 - $180 plus labor, you're talking about the difference between spending $150 and spending $1k over the next 30k miles...
Oh, and the other thing -- a truly badly ignored chain can easily snap and seize the bike in the process, throwing you off it at high speed -- so in a sense, it could cost you your life. Aside from tires and possibly brakes, the chain is the most crucial item to your continued good fortune on two wheels.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[md86]

And when the chain looks dry , it's time to give it some love .

[ctandc]

Wow, what a wierd tool. You get much use out of it? I just use a hacksaw to cut off old chains, but a saw made JUST FOR CHAINS... I am impressed.

How many other super-specialized tools do you have?

Plenty.

Wanna see the wrenches I bent for accessing the back header bolts on my last project cars?

LOL