Chain Gang

Its been three weeks since I brought the Triumph Bonneville home and with 1500 miles on the clock its time to get serious about chain maintenance. I swore up and down I'd never get another motorcycle with a chain final drive, but here I am! I like belts best of all and there is an aftermarket kit built by a former Triumph dealer in Pennsylvania (Quiet Power Drive.com) which I have my eye on, but at a thousand dollars it'll have to wait till this chain is worn out. Modern chains on motorcycles are said to be good for 20,000 miles and with a fussy level of care some people claim 40,000 miles out of a set of chain and sprockets, and so it is I have set myself up to take as good care of mine as I can. That's another reason I bought a $220 "optional" center stand...

Like every other Internet discussed motorcycle operation, the care and feeding of the modern motorcycle chain is a subject of plenty of controversy. Some people clean their chains with a spray of WD40 and a wipe with a rag, others use brake cleaner ( as suggested by my dealer). Triumph recommends good old fashioned "paraffin" which, on this side of the Atlantic translates into kerosene, and that is only available at Ace Hardware stores. I bought a gallon at the excellent Ace store on Summerland Key, and my wife gave me a plastic lidded box to dip my Grunge Brush in.

First I pulled off the sprocket cover on the engine- five simple bolts.

Then I took the long brush on the end of the Grunge Buster and slopped kerosene into the sprocket area to clean all the grunge and dirt stuck in there.

Modern final drive chains have little hidden o-rings that keep lubrication inside the chain links, and I fear using modern solvents because they may break down the rubber o-rings and allow the inner lubricant to dry out. Hence the old fashioned, no aerosol kerosene and scrub brush technique. The grunge brush gets three sides of the chain.

Then I dry the chain and sprockets with a piece of oily rag, and let the chain dry. Later, when I go for a ride I will squeeze the little Loobman bottle I have installed ($36 delivered from England), which drips engine oil onto the rear sprocket and lubricates those precious o-rings. It's a typically English low tech gadget that works great, the chain is much cooler and smoother running with a gentle squeeze every tankful of premium.

And then all that's left to do is get out and ride, after cleaning one's hands to keep all that oily stuff off the grips.

So, is it better to buy a new belt every 6,000 miles for the Vespa? Or clean the chain every 1500? Beats me, I'd rather have a lifetime belt drive like the Harleys do, but that is in my future and maybe I'll miss fussing over my old fashioned chain. At my high mileage that's unlikely!