The Chain on the sprockets on your bike are integral to the way it performs. You cannot expect to get the best out of that finely tuned motor if you don’t look after the bits that convert all that power into forward motion. Yet a swift look round your average bike park will reveal a sorry selection of slack chains and worryingly worn sprockets. This is not good – it’s time to look at changing the chain and sprockets.
STEP #1 LOOSEn the FRONT
OK so before we launch into whipping off the Rear wheel and binning the old chain, we need to slow down a tad. In order to loosen off the nuts and bolts that are holding the front and rear sprockets in place, we are going to want to hold them still. And there’s nothing better than using the chain and rear brakes to do just that, so we leave it there for the moment and start by removing the front sprocket cover.
If carrying out this process on a road or adventure bike as we are, the nut holding on the front sprocket is likely to be seriously tight. It’s also going to be held in place by a tab washer, so the tab needs to be tapped down before starting then the nut can be liberally coated with WD40 and left for five minutes.
Once done, using the correct sized socket, we attach a long bar and secure the rear wheel by holding down the rear brake and bracing the rear wheel spokes against the swing arm with a length of strong wood. Hopefully this will be enough to undo the nut at this point but if it’s not budging then we need a plan B. More force isn’t going to help!
Plan B involves popping the socket into a jacket pocket, riding the bike up to the closest garage and politely asking them to use the air wrench to loosen the nut. In a second it will be done and then after nipping it back up, returning home. See why we left that chain on?
STEP #2 Loosen the Back
Once back home, we can loosen and remove the front nut and turn our attention to the rear sprocket nuts. As these are much smaller and more often changed, they are unlikely to be as tight, but they are likely to have been secured with thread lock. Again we secure the rear wheel with the brake and using a socket and a medium length bar, break the seal and undo the nuts, working in a opposite to opposite pattern until all are loosened. We leave them in place for the moment until the chain is off.
STEP #3 REMOVE THE CHAIN
With both the sprockets suitably loosened, we now can ditch the chain. How this is done will depend on the link used, so if it’s a conventional split link then it’s just a question of popping off the clip, removing the side place and pulling out the rest of the link.
If it’s a fixed link, then we will need to either reach for the grindwheel to grind away the tops of the pins before forcing off the top plate using a large screw driver and mallet, or be more technical and do this using a proper link breaker. Both will achieve much the same result, but it makes sense to wear protective eyewear for whichever method. If we intended to use the chain again – unwise if fitting new sprockets – then the link breaker is a better idea as it’s less likely to damage other links than with the grind wheel.
Either way, once the link is off, the chain can be removed and rolled it into a plastic bag to stop any chain muck getting over everything else in the garage.
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STEP #4 REMOVE THE WHEEL
OK so half the work it done so it’s now time to remove the wheel, take off the old sprocket and then pull off the front sprocket. Even without the nut it still may be tight on the shaft, so we grip it with a suitable large tool and wiggle it off the shaft. Then we clean off the entire front sprocket area with a suitable solvent or just more WD40, remembering to put down newspapers or rags to catch the mess.
At the rear, we take off the nuts, remove the old sprocket and clean up the threads on the retaining bolts with a wire brush. Once done, we remove the sprocket carrier from the wheel and inspect the cush-drive rubbers that should remain in place in the hub. If we are changing the rest of the drive train. then it makes sense to renew the rubbers too as we have the bike in pieces.
STEP #5 REPLACE THE SPROCKETS
We are now ready to replace everything, so we start by putting in the new cush drive rubbers, and then slotting the sprocket carrier into place. Once done, we can install the new sprocket, in this case we are using a Renthal Ultralite version rather than the heavier OEM Yamaha item. The Tenere is heavy enough without a big steel sprocket at the back! As we don’t want change the gearing, we are replacing with the same size at both ends, but if we were looking to alter the gearing, we’d look at our handy guide here.
With the replacement in position, we put a dab of threadlock on each stub and reinstall the bolts, tightening to the correct torque setting according to the manual using a proper torque wrench in an opposite to opposite pattern again.
At the front, refit the new sprocket, making sure it is the same way round as the one we removed – good job we made a note! We’re using the Renthal front here for the same reason we used one at the back. Once positioned, we fit the tab washer and nut, but only tighten to hand tight only at this point as we we are not able to hold it in place and tighten it until the chain is on.
STEP #6 FITTING THE NEW CHAIN
We’re on the home straight now, so it’s time to reach for the new chain. Again we’ve gone for Renthal road chain as we’ve never had a bad product from this British firm. As we’ve If you’ve got a model specific chain and we are not changing the gearing then the chain should be the correct length straight from the box.
We roll the chain out onto the rear sprocket and guide it forward round the front sprocket and take it back to meet up on the rear sprocket. We needed move the wheel forward to get roughly the correct tension before fitting the link.
As with removal, how the chain is joined will depend on the type of link, but for road or adventure bikes then rivet links are more advisable and common than split links. Which ever is used, it’s important to ensure any O or X rings are lubricated with the supplied grease and correctly in place before fitting the top plate. We also use the supplied spacer to ensure that as the top plate if pushed into place, the rings are not squashed
We refitted our rivet link using gradual pressure from a G clamp and then used a spare top plate to reveal the link pins to the correct height before burring them with a steel punch, placing a heavy hammer behind the link while we were completing the task.
If you had one, we could have used the chain tool mentioned before.
The final two steps are to adjust the chain tension using the adjusters on the rear axle, and then to tighten the front sprocket nut that was left only hand tight. We lock the back wheel in place using the rear brake and that bracing wood and then use that torque wrench again to achieve the correct tightness. Once done we can use a mid-sized screw driver and mallet to tap down one of the tabs on the washer and secure the nut in place.
Now we refit the front sprocket cover and it’s job done. Simple – buttery smooth and noise free transmission returned – let’s get riding!
PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG IS PRESENTED ONLY AS AN INDICATION OF HOW WE CHANGE CHAINS AND SPROCKETS AND SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A DEFINITIVE GUIDE.
ONLY ATTEMPT ANY MAINTENANCE ON YOUR MOTORCYCLE IF YOU ARE COMPETENT TO DO SO AND HAVE SUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE AND THE CORRECT TOOLS TO COMPLETE THE TASK SAFELY.
IF IN DOUBT, TAKE YOUR MOTORCYCLE TO A QUALIFIED MECHANIC.
This post first appeared on Cambodia Motorcycle Tours | Ride Cambodia, please read the originial post: here
