I kept hearing a noise...thought it was a wheel bearing ...turns out my chain was trashed. There was one section nearly a foot in length that was one continuous kink. Several other kinks spaced out over the rest of the length.I am not the worlds best at taking care of my chain but did adjust and lube several times. I always tried to keep he chain a bit loose...on the cusp of 1.75" slack...usually closer to 2" I run the slab some and two lane blacktop. The chain dd see a lot of rain...but I always gave a squirt or two of Motul or blue ray. Ran fast I reckon....several 100 mile stretches of 80 mph. Even so, I figured it'd last longer than 8 k miles. The sprockets didn't look too bad ...so I broke my own rule and only did the chain. When adjusting the old chain, in order to get the correct slack...1/3 rotation of the wheel the chain would bind up and not have even 1/2" of slack. If I adjusted the tightest section to proper slack then it would be very very loose 1/3 rotation around. I was worried it'd come off & lock up so I cut her off and replaced with a new one. Reckon what I did to cause this short life? Was it just a cheap chain used by H?
After 5000km I have noticed that some of the links on my chain are getting stiff. I oil it a lot. I think it's just a cheap chain to meet the price point of this bike. Like you, both my sprockets don't show any signs of wear.
Just have 6300 on bike...did a fast run from Wisconsin to Montana to Utah 2000 mile trip lubed every 5/6 hundred miles...chain has kinks also will cut and fix new.
I posted on here or ADV that mine was destroyed @ 6k miles. It seems that these chains only have a life span of about 7500miles if you treat them well. Towards the end I was having to adjust mine every other day and it was either draw string tight or rubbing on the frame... So I went with a Renthal O-ring chain and some new sprockets. The stock sprockets looked fine and will probably get used again. We'll see if the JT sprockets I put on hold up as well.
18,000km on my stock chain before I replaced it. I kept it clean & fairly well lubed but I'm not fanatical about it. Plenty of dirt, water and high speed over that 18k so I wasn't unhappy with the stock one.
Don't know what the stock sprockets are on the 650s, but I think the 630 sprockets were made of butter. Here's mine after 9000 miles: Replaced mine with some beefier supersprox: I have about 3000 miles on the new set, and they still look new.
the 630 sprockets are anodized alloy, and once thru that couple of thousandths of anodized hardness....they are butter. I replaced my TE 630 sprocket with an Ironman, the best made IMO. Never worn one out on anything, including big built XR's Every chain these days is o-ring minimum, if not x-ring - except maybe on pure dirtbikes that aren't streetable. The oem chain on the TR is of average quality, I'll replace it with an RK XSO, D.I.D., or Tsubaki Sigma. The RK XSO is my current favorite as it can be found on ebay for a good price.
9000 miles is about 5000 more miles than I ever expected a aluminum sprocket to last especially on a 630. - Not sure what kind of milage you guys are expecting out of sprockets but all these posts are WAY longer than I expect and would be stoked to get that kind of range.
I have no complaints, especially with an aluminum sprocket. Just seemed odd to me, coming from sport bikes. The highest mileage sport bike I owned had 15,000 miles on it and the OEM final drive still had plenty of life in it, and that was on a 160 HP bike.
A 160hp bike has a much stronger 530 chain, has much smoother power (not the hammer like single cylinder power), does not deal with the whipping from 12" of travel, is not subject to continuous dirt, does not have to deal with hammering acceleration and braking bumps, has steel sprockets, has a much larger CS sprocket, lots of low load miles while maintaining speed, . Lots of reasons they last a long time.
Yeah, the bigger stronger chains can make a huge difference to longevity. Most powerful sportsbike I owned was a 180hp ZX12R which had a 530 chain. I had that bike for 38,000km and when I got rid of it it still had the factory chain and sprockets fitted. The sprockets were still in reasonable condition as was the chain. I only needed to adjust that chain twice in 38,000km/2years.
Did you see HighFive's post over on ADV? It seems that his footpeg bolt was making contact with the chain, causing it to wear early. I just walked out and checked mine. Sure as heck, I can see where they've made contact. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=22235548&postcount=1473 No sweat though. I've noticed that this chain gets rusty faster than any bike in my arsenal. My chain looks like it has double the amount of miles on it that it really does. I think the stock chain is just cheap. I'll run it for another 1k miles or so, but it will get replaced soon.
Mine is not rubbing and the fastener appears to be in good condition. I may just add a thicker washer or two.
What is involved with installing a new chain? What would be a good recommended chain. I have had nothing but BMW's since '72.
