How to Adjust a Motorcycle Chain

Series Summary

The first petroleum powered motorcycle was designed and built by German inventors in 1885. There was a steam powered, two-wheeled vehicle that was demonstrated at fairs and circuses in 1867 in the eastern United States. Modern day motorcycles consist of a chassis, an engine, a transmission, wheels and tires, a brake system, suspension coils, and instruments to gauge speed, distance and other important variables. There are many types of motorcycles now, including pocket bikes, choppers, sport bikes, motocross bikes, mopeds, scooters, cruisers and touring motorcycles. Get motorcycle maintenance tips in this free video series on motorcycle maintenance featuring certified motorcycle technician Steven DuParc. DuParc will demonstrate how to adjust a motorcycle chain, how to lube a motorcycle chain, how to lube motorcycle pivot points, how to check motorcycle brakes, how to check motorcycle tires, how to check motorcycle fluids, how to check motorcycle fork seals, how to check motorcycle clutch free play and how to do a pre-ride motorcycle inspection.

Video Transcript

"Today we're going to talk about proper maintenance and care of your drive chain on your motorcycle. One of the first steps to inspect your chain is to see the free play or the slack that you have in your chain. The thing to look for in your chain and sprockets is tight spots or wear on your sprocket like this right here. This sprocket, as you can see the teeth are going one way and there's broken teeth off of it. This sprocket is what we call wasted. The first thing to do when adjusting your chain and sprocket or adjusting your chain is to loosen your axle up. We've already done that, so what we're going to do now is go to our adjustment blocks on the rear axle. First you loosen the lock nut, which is a twelve millimeter on this particular bike. You loosen this up and the same thing on the other side. Then you'll get the actual adjustment screw or bolt, and if it's too loose then you need to go backwards with the bolt. If it's too tight, then you need to go forward with the bolt. In this case the chain is too loose, there's too much slack in it so we need to go backwards. On motorcycles there are tick marks on the sub-frame, what you do is align this portion of the adjustment block, or some of them have little ticks on the adjustment block where you can actually line them up with the corresponding ticks on the sub-frame, or on the swing arm, I'm sorry. This one you use the edge of the block, so you want to make sure that this one is equal distance on this side as on the other side. So when you tighten the chain, say move this backwards, you look at the ticks, line it up, then you're going to snug this lock nut down. After that's done, you tighten the axle back up, spin your tire to make sure there's no tight spots in it, and if you have no tight spots you're good to go. What you need to do next is clean your chain, and then lube it. The way you look at your adjustment, it will be in your manual, and you just measure from your sub-frame to the chain, and the specified link. You push up but not too hard, and you adjust the nuts on the axle blocks to the specified link. After that's all done, you're ready to put your bike off of it's stand, make sure everything is good, and snug and you're ready to rock and roll."