I went riding yesterday with my son and noticed a new noise. So, decided to ride home solo (we were attending a family event and the rest of family was in our minivan).
Got home and parked the bike. Today, I get time and daylight to inspect everything.
From the side, I couldn't see anything wrong except needing a good cleaning.
It was when I rotated the wheel from behind that I saw this:
Glad I didn't take it on my 160 mile interstate commute today.
Mine's got 2100 miles on it... but I checked and lubed it last week anyway. 
I had a chain break one time, it wrapped up around the front sprocket and broke the engine case. What a mess.
You wouldn't have that issue on the GeezerGlide!(private joke) Lucky you were close to home.
Well, now... that was just a few more revs from becoming more expensive and possibly somewhat painful. How many miles on that?
Are the sprocket teeth badly worn too? Some look pretty sharp and loosely gapped in that last pic.
Do you know what brand of chain it is? I've found that you definitely get what you pay for with chains. Most of my chain wear experience is with dirt bikes, and I can say that a premium chain will pay for itself.
Minimac, I should have just grabbed the geezerglide for the week ;)
I don't have any motorcycles that use chains.
It's the best of both worlds.
In reply to Trans_Maro:
Until the shaft drive unlubes itself everywhere.......
I'll let you know if that (ever) happens.
Inspect the sprockets while it's apart, no point in putting a new chain on something like this.
In reply to Trans_Maro:
It can happen from time to time, and when it does its a whole heck of a lot more expensive than a chain. I'm used to stuff with a lot more power and have only replaced 1 chain.....and that was just because I changed gearing. 
Astonishing what just cleaning, lubing, and waxing can do.
In reply to 914driver:
Holy hell what happened there?
Trans_Maro wrote: I don't have any motorcycles that use chains. It's the best of both worlds.
Except looks. Reminds me of lawnmower belts and pullys. I'll let shaft drives slide, though.
No belt drive here.
My Guzzis are sexy, the Stelvio isn't what I would consider underpowered and my Goldwing.. It's a Goldwing.
Honda and Guzzi aren't high on the list for final drive problems.
ANYTHING is unreliable if you don't do the maintenance.
yamaha wrote: In reply to 914driver: Holy hell what happened there?
That's the KZ-650 I bought, it needs some love.
In reply to 914Driver:
O.o Renthal sprocket I presume?
Que?
In reply to 914Driver:
In my experience, renthals have been fairly soft(granted my experience isn't in off road)
In HD world, a chain is stronger than a belt. And a good O-ring chain is what you want if you're making tons of power and want to do burnouts/roast tires, hole shots, etc.
My '04 10r has a 525 EK x-ring chain and the raptor has a EK 530 o-ring chain(that's even circlipped) lol
Dr. Hess wrote: In HD world, a chain is stronger than a belt. And a good O-ring chain is what you want if you're making tons of power and want to do burnouts/roast tires, hole shots, etc.
As an engineer for Gates (the people who make the belts for HD and Polaris, among others), I can assure you that the belt is stronger than the chain by a good margin. The failure modes we have seen through testing/warrranty claims over the past 40 years (!) are almost always due to either not running the belt guards (debris) or not replacing the belt at the service interval.
In HD world, 40hp is a lot. 
Good catch!
I remember watching chains break at the dragstrip on higher powered bikes.
TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA- TA-DA-BRRRRZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING
And the rider looks down, very confused.
Yeah, I'm not at Yamaha's level, but the bike has been dyno'd at 120whp. I'm surprised I didn't snap it.
sobe_death wrote: As an engineer for Gates (the people who make the belts for HD and Polaris, among others), I can assure you that the belt is stronger than the chain by a good margin. The failure modes we have seen through testing/warrranty claims over the past 40 years (!) are almost always due to either not running the belt guards (debris) or not replacing the belt at the service interval.
Interesting, since Gates says shock load, crimp and wear are the big failure problems. http://sdp-si.com/web/images/Belt_failure_analysis_Guide.pdf
Gates specifications for their belts in their drive design manual are lower than the peak power capacities of chains. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAAahUKEwjppq2V-LfHAhXLXD4KHWqgD8w&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gates.com%2F~%2Fmedia%2Ffiles%2Fgates%2Findustrial%2Fpower-transmission%2Fcatalogs%2Fpc_carbon_manual17595_2011.pdf&ei=M-3VVanBL8u5-QHqwL7gDA&usg=AFQjCNHdL3o7W5xD8HwC465IjtoHtxFhMA
You'll need to log in to post.
