went fr a ride, for about 80km, on the way home the bike was hunting on off throttle, and makeing a racket from the chain area.... cant be the chain, its only 6 months old.... well let this be a lesson, buy a good quality chain, cos this thing stretched that bad, that i had to buy another on the way home, i bought top quality sprockets, but didnt have the cash at the time for a good chain.... long story short, the chain was stuffed.
old chain on the left, new 530 RK o ring on the right...hmmm
one of these things is not like the other
peace
PS and before anyone decides they are gonna flame me for bad chain care, this chain was lubed 2 times a week, but had to deal with daily 24km trip in torrential rain, pretty much 6 days a week (they call it a wet season for a reason), it was cheap ( cos i was broke trying to start my practice), it was non o ring, i think must have only been good for 500cc...lol
remarkably they are both 530 chains, with the same pitch and width at the rollers (i checked i was a fitter/toolmaker in a former life)
G'Day Ben, I bought a cheap 530 "Non O Ring" chain offa EBay some years ago (seller was in QLD) and it was awful quality, so I didn't use it, the links were really thin metal, just awful, looked worse than OEM, and that's saying something...... I installed an RK X Ring chain and 7 years and many 120+ MPH runs later, there's no noticeable stretch. Good stuff.
Having said that though, in my opinion, I agree with Brown Bomber, a good quality, well maintained "non O Ring" chain is just as good as an O ring chain. Tsubaki apparently still make a 530 non O ring chain, and considering that they make arguably the best cam chain in the world, I'd be happy to buy one of their drive chains. Chains get hot (that's why you should always lube your chain AFTER a ride so the lube will penetrate it.........) and I wouldn't trust the couple of microns of chain lube sealed behind an O ring to last more than a couple of hundred miles on a hot day, much less than for the life of a chain.
ALL chains, regardless of whether they're O ring or non O ring, require regular maintenance and lubrication, or they'll wear out prematurely. I don't use fancy chain wax or crap like that, I use chainsaw cutter bar oil (which is just sticky engine oil) that I brush on with a paintbrush. There's probably a better method, but it works for me. I used to use Duckhams chain grease (you heated it up on your stove and dropped your cleaned chain into it when it melted) but I don't think you can buy it any more, probably due to all the houses that burnt down and the 3rd degree burns that most of us Duckhams fans received in the course of our chain maintenance. Cheers, Terry.
