All modern bikes sold in India comes with open, O-Ring chains. They look awesome, gives the bike a sporty feeling but compare to closed chains, these awesome looking open type chains need maintenance.
Often, majority of us will overlook and ignore this aspect of maintenance and concentrate on changing the engine oil by using some costly and better engine oil.
However, all motorcycle or bike in India are sold with open type chains need regular lubrication of the drive chain and connected front / rear sprocket. If you ignore and you continue to ride your bike with dry chain, you will notice Excessive Vibrations / Hard Gear Shifting / Rough riding experience and ride quality. It will not just degrade your riding experience but riding with dry chain and ignoring lubrications will damage the chain and sprockets.
Engine is connected to the gearbox and it is connected to the front sprocket, so when you accelerate, the engine snips the gearbox, gearbox is connected to the front sprocket, which grips the chain and chain spins while gripping the rear sprocket. Rear Sprocket is connected to the rear wheel, so now the engine power is connected the rear wheel.
When the metal chain is gripping both front of rear sprocket, it rubs the metal surface. Metal to Metal rubbing will create friction and if its not lubricated properly, metal parts will wear out.
Here is an example of our FZ25 Chain Sprocket after 35,000 kms of use.
As you may notice, when we compare a new and old sprocket, the teeth of the old sprocket, where the drive chain grips the sprocket, is complete worn out. This extreme example will make the chain miss gripping the sprocket and spin freely when you try to accelerate aggressively. This will cause heavy vibrations and hard gear shifting too and its dangerous.
If you don’t maintain the chain, you will be forced to replace the chain and chain sprockets far too often. For most of the normal Indian bikes, usually the chain sprocket kit (front and rear sprocket and drive chain) will cost between Rs. 2500 to Rs. 3000, where as for expensive bikes like KTM Duke or RC 390 may cost a lot more.
How to Maintain your Chain Properly?
Here is a video guide on proper chain maintenance process. How to clean it properly and then how to keep it well lubricated by applying chain spray.
This is applicable to all & any Indian bikes coming with O-Ring type open chain, like, Hero, Honda, Yamaha, Royal Enfield, KTM, Bajaj, Pulsars, TVS RTR Apache or Duke, RC and so on.
