Oldfeller--FSO
Serious Thumper ModSquad
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Hobby is now "concentrated neuropany"
Posts: 12672
Fayetteville, NC
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Danroot,
The chain we use today fits the sprockets that fit the holes and splines of a 1986 era design type sister motorcycle.
They happen to fit our bike too 'cause Suzuki has a lot of common use design parts between their bikes (clutch plates, baskets, sprockets, spline shafts, wheel hub geometry are all reused from bike to bike as common parts between models saves design time and it also mean less costly parts).
Chains used to be huge so to be able to carry the loads the larger, more powerful bikes required while still being made of fairly soft material. So our chain is huge -- ain't many much bigger.
Interesting point is that if you buy a premium grade X ring chain made today, it is made of modern high strength steels -- but it still has to be made HUGE to fit the sprockets. We don't know how strong the resulting chain is, but it is stronger than we need by far. This means potentially very durable too.
If you set up a squeeze oiler to preserve the external lubing of the O rings and the sprocket itself, then the O rings will keep the factory grease inside the links for like 50,000 miles. Your spockets will last that long too.
If you don't, the chain won't last 30,000 miles. Sprocket goes when the chain goes (they are wear married after all).
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Now, interesting point for you to consider -- a chain conversion with a good X ring chain costs well over $100. It costs less than a new belt, but that is still well over $160. A good X ring chain by itself can cost over $100.
For twice that much money you can buy a Stage 2 Cam and then you don't need the chain conversion at all as your bike can spin up enough to use the stock belt ratios to break the ton. In 4th gear no less.
So, you can spend the money to try to squeeze a little extra speed out of stock motor output at standard RPMs -- or you can spend the money to increase motor output and spin the motor up to higher rpm ranges that a stock motor simply cannot reach.
Chain conversion or Stage 2 Cam? The dollars are not all that far apart from each other.
W.W.Y.D???
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