Being that my bike that suffered a countershaft bearing catastrophy I wanted to check with you guys about proper chain tension. When I set it up I had the girlfriend sit on the passenger seat and bounce up and down... Yes it was exciting to watch.
I supported the bike while feeling the chain tension. I tested it about a little forward of 1/2 way between the front and rear sprockets. It had some tension and I adjusted it so that it had 1/2" to 3/4" play when pressed up or down firmly with my fingers. It wasn't a sloppy 1/2" to 3/4." I noticed the inside side of the chain was occasionally rubbing on the verticle cylinder's exhaust header pipe. The fact that the guy I bought it from (2nd owner) said the front sprocket was missing two teeth when he replaced the chain, and sprockets would lead me to believe the 1st owner may have run the chain too tight. I checked alignment of both while I was there. It did not appear as though the chain was ridding correctly on the nylon slider/guide thing on the top of the swing arm.
So what is your chain adjustment proceedure?
Anyone else find missing teeth on a front sprcket?
Maybe a stupid question... but I'm having a hard time visulizing the geometry behind why the chain gets tighter as the suspension compresses. I mean the swingarm remains the same length and the radius from the center of the sprockets remains the same on both the front and rear.