my chain is little loose and i would like to make it tension adjustment..

first question i have is: how stiff the chain should be???? im new to street bikes but i have noticed on my 125 Suzuki that when i made the chain stiffer i had a lot of power gain.

second question is: how do i know the rear wheel is straight after adjustment. i do not want to screw something up and have a terrible experience riding or even worse, loose the bike from under me on the corner because my wheel is out of alignment.


anybody that can help, please come forward, i would like to do this myself. i want to learn about my bike as much as possible.

 

You can do it yourself,Use the marks on the back of the swing arm as a guide.Your chain should have about 1" of play.Measure it about half way down the swingarm and lift it.Hope this helps.

 

You have to find the tightest point on the chain (between front & rear sprocket). This will mean having to rotate the rear wheel a few times till you find it. The adjustment markings are not always accurate & I loosen off the adjuster nuts & turn each one the same till I get chain adjusted to the right tension. Then go for a quick ride, then lube the chain.

 

The owner's manual on my bike says 1-1.4 inches of slack at the bottom half of the chain, halfway between the two sprockets. Take a ruler and try to move the chain up and down at that point and measure the total deflection.

I use a fairly inexpensive gadget called a Motion Pro Chain Alignment Tool. They say the hash marks on the swingarm aren't always accurate so I bought the tool to verify that the wheel was straight. In my case the swingarm marks are apparently accurate. They also sell laser pointing aligning tools but those cost a lot more.

 

thank you all, i just checked the chain and its adjusted just fine..... i thought it was loose but i guess not.

thats why i asked before started to do anything.