Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

There have been some questions asked about the best way to maintain your chain. Firstly, KEEP YOUR FINGERS AWAY FROM THE CHAIN IF IT'S MOVING!!! EVEN WITH THE ENGINE SWITCHED OFF A CHILD SWINGING THE BACK WHEEL CAN TAKE YOUR FINGERS OFF IF THEY GET PULLED INTO THE SPROCKET! There's a good article here that is helpful: http://motorcycles.about.com/od/motorcyclemaintenanc1/ss/Chain_Maint.htm In the old days I used to remove the chain and clean it and lay it in grease, which we used to heat so that it soaked into all the crevices. Now that's not necessary. Chains are built to ISO standards that extend the life of the chain if you give it a once-over on a weekly / fortnightly basis. Believe it or not, many of our chains have little rubber o-rings inside the links to keep the lubricant inside. So DON'T blast your chain with one of those power hose thingies that pump high pressure jets of water out of the gun handle jobbie that you hold in your hand (see Renette, I'm learning the techie jargon that will be understood better). High pressure water jets can damage the chain's o-rings. DON'T put a cloth around your hand and swing the wheel around while you clean the chain ... or even WORSE, have the engine switched on and put your hand near the chain. Look ma no fingers! The chain will actually pull your hand into the sprocket and it will sever your fingers like a chain saw! What I do ... and here I'm open to any suggestions : I put the bike on the centre stand (ok in my case the paddock stand). I run the engine with the bike in gear and spray cleaner, like Prepsol or Mr Muscle or Jeyes Fluid (delightful Public Toilet Odour) onto the chain from a distance. I then use a toothbrush with an elongated handle to run against the chain. Both sides. Then I clean with the hose, again while the wheel is turning. Switch off. Carefully dry and clean again, and now clean the sprocket (I use a bronze brush that looks like a toothbrush on the sprocket). Make sure all the cleaner is rinsed off. Open the front sprocket cover and use a screwdriver or something similar to clean the gunge out and again clean with Preposol equivalent and brush, and finally rinse. Then I wax the chain with chain wax. You don't even need to dry the chain, but I usually do. I used to go to a hell of a lot more trouble, but didn't get any more mileage out of a chain than I do now. In fact by doing this once a week, I've doubled the life of my chain with normal riding (80% road 20% offroad). BTW the wax is great. Much better than oil/grease based lubricants. It's cleaner, doesn't wash off and works better with sand. Corne can probably give us some good advice here, for the rest they are probably just a bunch of wallies who have shaft drives which is the chain equivalent of viagra. (I await the response in anticipation :-) )