[H-2 CHARLIE]

STEEL . is long life street use .................. alum. is racing

[scottynoface]

520 chains on something not INTENDED for it will experience more wear, its a simple fact. Add in the heavier weight of the avg kat, and its rider, its definitely possible.

Soulpatchs 520 chain lasted about 4K on his post 600..

Just saying, the 520 chain's strength far exceeds any forces it will handle in its life, especially on a non race bike. Granted a touring bike and a motogp bike will see a significant difference in miles traveled, but force is force right? Possible yes, likely no. Much more likely that the Al sprocket wore down quickly just like every other rider who has swapped for Al sprockets.

With proper maintenance a 520 will last just as long as a 530, no matter the application.

[GSXFJim]

Reborn, It sounds like you got a bad sprocket out of the box, possibly a lower grade of material made it's way into the stack during manufacturing, an 'out of spec' section of the sheet of aluminum it came from... who really knows.

First 520 and 530 chains share similar properties, they both have a 5/8" pitch and have have a .400 roller diameter. The pin diameters are the same at .200" and both have an average tensile strength of 6,100lb and no real weight savings either, a 530 weighs .66lb per foot and a 520 is .64lb per foot.

Where I see the problem is how the stress is distributed on each tooth. The big difference is the distance between the 2 inner plates, a 520 is 1/4" a 530 is 3/8". That leaves a 1/8" difference on each tooth, less surface area to distribute load which will increase wear.

For instance a 45t/520 rear has 30 rollers that come in contact with the sprocket, each tooth has only a 1/4" of surface area touching each tooth compared to 3/8" for the 530, that's an 1/8" difference per tooth, it doesn't seem like a lot but it's a difference of 3.75" of surface area. The 530 is 11.4" and the 520 is 7.5".

The load distribution on the tooth is where the difference is.. shock loads imposed by hi-impact events in the drive train such as dumping the clutch at 12,000 can have serious negative effect on the unit as well a general riding style, not to mention the weight of the Kat to begin with, add the 2 together and you could see lots of premature wear.

Since loads on your drive train are going to vari, I'd be interested in knowing what type of 'loads' your putting on your drive train.

[RebornKat02]

All I know is I'm switching up to a steel sprocket. I do ride hard. I ride alot of freeway miles and alot of street miles. On the freeway I do tend to exceed the speed limit *coughs* a little bit. My friends on their way faster SS bikes say I ride her like I stole it so maybe they're just not for me. They don't fit my riding style I guess. I'm just shocked so many people say that aluminum sprockets are so great when they get eaten so fast. Vortex sprockets ARE gorgeous and if they make em outta steel I'll have to look into a set. I did find a really nice looking set but it's set up for a Suzi SV. Not sure if it'd bolt up or not but I definately want to look into that. It's from Drive Systems. I also found a Ti set up but the sprockets run $89f $179r. I'm not sure how they'd wear or if it'd be better to have a softer sprockets. Kinda like better to wear out a sprocket than bend a output shaft? I dunno. Guess we'll see. I can't see spending that kinda cash on sprockets tho.

[steves]

Soulpatchs 520 chain lasted about 4K on his post 600..

You can't really take that as evidence though... it wasn't serviced.

[Rican Katgrl]

You are correct Steve. The 520 setup we had on the kat was never serviced. No cleaning, no lubing, no nothing. So it barely made it through 2 seasons. I barely made it on that chain last season and I remember a certain someone telling me "your going to CANADA on that chain?". lol

[thetable]

It's all about the maintenance. I put nearly 20k on the 520 aluminum setup I had on the kat, and I still had life left in the sprocket. Lubed every tank of fuel.

[chamrck09]

I have the 520 conversion with Vortex sprockets and I just noticed 3 days ago that my rear is chewed all to pieces and every other tooth is tore up pretty bad. But my question is can I go back to my factory 530 steel sprockets and still use my chain that came with my Vortex sprockets or will I have to buy a whole new chain?

[steves]

okay first of all aluminum sprockets are not made of just straight aluminum. If they were, they would fall apart the first second you tried to put any stress on them. They are made of an aluminum alloy, most 7075 T6.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7075_aluminium_alloy

The next step is the important part, anodizing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_anodizing

The anodizing process changes the structure of the Aluminum to strengthen it.

Now that said, Aluminum is not as forgiving as steel so far as wear and maintenance is concerned. You must keep the chain fairly clean, and well lubricated.

[DHolzwarth]

I have the 520 conversion with Vortex sprockets and I just noticed 3 days ago that my rear is chewed all to pieces and every other tooth is tore up pretty bad. But my question is can I go back to my factory 530 steel sprockets and still use my chain that came with my Vortex sprockets or will I have to buy a whole new chain?

You will need to buy a whole new chain plus front and rear sprockets if you want to convert back to 530 - 530 is 1/8 "wider" than 520. Read GSFXJims post a few above this one.

If you don't want to convert back, you probably should buy a new chain anyway. It has been damaged too. Personally, irrespective of 530 or 520, I would replace all three components. The metal that has come off your driven sprocket has gone somewhere.....

Alignment is always important, but it is critical to life of an aluminum sprocket - the hardened steel chain side plates will just carve up aluminum, irrespective of the alloy and hardening procedure. Check your alignment carefully, and do not trust the marks on swingarm. On my Kat, they aren't even close. When the sprockets are dead in line, there is a two mark difference right to left. From posts I have read in these forums, that's kind of common.


Only 3K miles on my 14/49/520 set up. Just went out and looked at it closely, no sign of wear on the driven sprocket. But I thank you for the warning and will watch it closely.

DHolzwarth

[BRAUNSTEIN82]

I know im not the right person to reply because i sell em, but.

I had a 520 aluminum vortex kit on my kat and barely maintained it and got well over 15K on it. I had 2 stunt bikes with the same kit and got about 10K and 2 seasons on one bike and 4k and 1 season then sold the bike. Both will little maintnance.

They are right above about alignment and also tension, these should be perfect.

I read something about $84 for front and $175 for rear. Thats $260 not even counting the chain, so add a hundred for that,$360 and well say you get 20,000 mile. Vortex aluminum kit cost $150 say you only get 10k, seems with cost you end up a little ahead. Plus you get the small gain in performance and the awsome look.

Also please dont use 14t on front unless your not worried about the life of the chain. I know thats the stock size for pre98 but it requires alot of flex for the chain and more pressure on the rollers from the teeth. Go with the 15 and just go up on the rear sprocket. 14t could also be a cause of sprocket damage, if it has already damaged the chain then that damage with reflect to the sprocket.

[chamrck09]

[QUOTE=BRAUNSTEIN82

Also please dont use 14t on front unless your not worried about the life of the chain. I know thats the stock size for pre98 but it requires alot of flex for the chain and more pressure on the rollers from the teeth. Go with the 15 and just go up on the rear sprocket. 14t could also be a cause of sprocket damage, if it has already damaged the chain then that damage with reflect to the sprocket.


I can honestly say that would have been a handy little bit of info to have had about 4 months ago when I bought my 520 kit from you, but hey I guess I should've asked what you recommended when I purchased it. To be perfectly honest there was absolutely nothing wrong with the 520 kit I got I personally have had numerous alignment issues as well as the much hated slack issues with the chain.

[RebornKat02]

@ braunstein, the $$ figures I posted were for a titanium sprocket set up. Very pricy. Supposedly lighter than aluminum and longer lasting than steel which would seem right to me but would that be a good idea given that sprockets and chains are supposed to wear, would making those wear so little that they could in effect cause damage to other components like output shafts and bearings? I know that with my machines @ work we tried to do something similar by using stronger less wearable bushings and we caused ourselves alot of damage to far more expensive bits.

[Tmod]

As far as chain/sprocket longevity has anyone taken into account the sprocket ratios (how many revolutions it takes before the same roller will contact the same tooth)? Maybe some of the chain/sprocket issues are due to a bad selection of sprocket ratio's.

But regardless I doubt that in a steel vs aluminum sprocket both maintained correctly that the aluminum will out last the steel.

Tmod

[RebornKat02]

Interesting theory too tmod. It is going around alot more often. More revs per mph. Could definately account for wear. Didn't think about that. I had over 31000 miles on the stock gears, odometer reads now 41258. I'm guessing closer to only 38-39k actual given the ratio change. Maybe that's just about right for wear. I can't afford to be dropping a new set of gears/chains every season tho, that's jus crazy. And it seems every season I ride more miles. Quite a bit more actually. Maybe for me aluminum just isn't cost effective for me.