devo
hairy old fart
One of the things about chain adjustment is, no matter how carefull you are,you are going to upset the rear wheel alignment.
As will be shown later in this post,the alignment marks on the bike are not what I would call accurate enough to go on.
This means,to do it accurately,you either need a laser set up, or get creative with a piece of string.
Here is how I do the latter.
Firstly, I have a timber stand which I park the bike in every time I arrive home.It holds the bike securely and upright therefore actually requiring less space in the garage as an upright bike is narrower than a bike on its sidestand, plus it is an easy task to check your oil level before you head out. Details are here,Cheap and Easy Bike Stand - Devo | Triumph Motorcycle Forum - TriumphTalk
In each side of my stand I drilled an apropriately sized and positioned hole through which I place two identical lengths of dowell which rest against the rim of the front wheel. The dimension over the two dowels in position is exactly that of the widest part of the rear tyre.
Shown here is the stand with the position of the holes,the two dowells,and a length of string and a bungee to supply tension.
With the bike in the stand and with a clamp across the top of the stand to eliminate any side to side movement of the front wheel, I use a small trolley jack positioned at right angle to the bike and lift the rear wheel just of the ground.
After placing the dowells into the holes in each side and ensuring they are sitting tight against the rim, I hook one end of the string to a screw forward of the hole and run this along and around the rear tyre and back to the screw in the same location on the opposite side of the stand,also incorporating the bungee in the line to keep tension.It pays to have the bike in gear so as the tension on the line doesn't rotate the rear wheel allowing the line to slip of. Be sure the line runs clear of the jack and any parts of the bike.I run it as high as possible without fouling the sidestand and it should run just inside the rear disc by a couple of mills or sixteenths,whichever your poison.
ie
a close up showing the position of one of the dowells on the front rim.
The next step is to measure the distance between the line and the widest point of the front tyre as far back on the front wheel as you can, and this distance needs to be exactly the same on both sides.To get the distances the same,you need to move the rear of the bike one way or the other,(which is why we have it on the trolley jack).If the distance on the left hand side is greater,then you would need to move the rear of the bike to the right to close that distance. This procedure will take a couple of goes to get the measurements exactly equal, but it is important that you do.Also, be aware, that if your rear is out by more than a few mill, as you adjust the alignment you may need to check those front measurements and readjust.
Then its time to look down the line on each side from the rear.If the wheel is correctly aligned, the line will be just brushing against the widest point of the tyre at the front of the rear wheel on both sides. When the alignment is out,you will see a gap between the tyre and line on one side and a kink in the line on the other.Obviously,the side with the gap will need to come back,or ,the other side needs to go forward, depending on whether you need to tighten or loosen your chain.At this point, if the alignment or the chain tension needs adjusting, you will need to back of the rear axle nut.I generally,loosen the smaller nut on the left side of the bike and hold the bigger nut on the right.
On the America, the chain slack spec is 20 to 30 mm and I measure between the bottom of the swingarm and the top edge of the bottom of the chain midway between the front and rear sprocket. I will push the chain up hard (eliminating the slack )and take a measurement and then hard down and take the second measurement. The difference will be the slack in the chain, and I then adjust untill I get a difference of 25 mm.
Of course the trick here is adjusting the chain tension while maintaining correct alignment and this does invove a little to-ing and fro-ing.
Where I measure the chain
And the view down the line when alignment is correct
left
and right
The final trick when all is correct is retightening the axle nut without shifting the alignment and or chain tension.
I normally wind the left hand adjuster in finger tight while leaving the right hand one out and this seems to minimise the wheel shifting as I take up the weight on the nut.As earlier,I hold the right hand nut and tighten the left side.
Two pics showing clearly why I do not use the alignment marks on the bike,here you can see a clear difference of 3 mm.
Right, job done, lube that chain and go ride.
As will be shown later in this post,the alignment marks on the bike are not what I would call accurate enough to go on.
This means,to do it accurately,you either need a laser set up, or get creative with a piece of string.
Here is how I do the latter.
Firstly, I have a timber stand which I park the bike in every time I arrive home.It holds the bike securely and upright therefore actually requiring less space in the garage as an upright bike is narrower than a bike on its sidestand, plus it is an easy task to check your oil level before you head out. Details are here,Cheap and Easy Bike Stand - Devo | Triumph Motorcycle Forum - TriumphTalk
In each side of my stand I drilled an apropriately sized and positioned hole through which I place two identical lengths of dowell which rest against the rim of the front wheel. The dimension over the two dowels in position is exactly that of the widest part of the rear tyre.
Shown here is the stand with the position of the holes,the two dowells,and a length of string and a bungee to supply tension.
With the bike in the stand and with a clamp across the top of the stand to eliminate any side to side movement of the front wheel, I use a small trolley jack positioned at right angle to the bike and lift the rear wheel just of the ground.
After placing the dowells into the holes in each side and ensuring they are sitting tight against the rim, I hook one end of the string to a screw forward of the hole and run this along and around the rear tyre and back to the screw in the same location on the opposite side of the stand,also incorporating the bungee in the line to keep tension.It pays to have the bike in gear so as the tension on the line doesn't rotate the rear wheel allowing the line to slip of. Be sure the line runs clear of the jack and any parts of the bike.I run it as high as possible without fouling the sidestand and it should run just inside the rear disc by a couple of mills or sixteenths,whichever your poison.
ie
a close up showing the position of one of the dowells on the front rim.
The next step is to measure the distance between the line and the widest point of the front tyre as far back on the front wheel as you can, and this distance needs to be exactly the same on both sides.To get the distances the same,you need to move the rear of the bike one way or the other,(which is why we have it on the trolley jack).If the distance on the left hand side is greater,then you would need to move the rear of the bike to the right to close that distance. This procedure will take a couple of goes to get the measurements exactly equal, but it is important that you do.Also, be aware, that if your rear is out by more than a few mill, as you adjust the alignment you may need to check those front measurements and readjust.
Then its time to look down the line on each side from the rear.If the wheel is correctly aligned, the line will be just brushing against the widest point of the tyre at the front of the rear wheel on both sides. When the alignment is out,you will see a gap between the tyre and line on one side and a kink in the line on the other.Obviously,the side with the gap will need to come back,or ,the other side needs to go forward, depending on whether you need to tighten or loosen your chain.At this point, if the alignment or the chain tension needs adjusting, you will need to back of the rear axle nut.I generally,loosen the smaller nut on the left side of the bike and hold the bigger nut on the right.
On the America, the chain slack spec is 20 to 30 mm and I measure between the bottom of the swingarm and the top edge of the bottom of the chain midway between the front and rear sprocket. I will push the chain up hard (eliminating the slack )and take a measurement and then hard down and take the second measurement. The difference will be the slack in the chain, and I then adjust untill I get a difference of 25 mm.
Of course the trick here is adjusting the chain tension while maintaining correct alignment and this does invove a little to-ing and fro-ing.
Where I measure the chain
And the view down the line when alignment is correct
left
and right
The final trick when all is correct is retightening the axle nut without shifting the alignment and or chain tension.
I normally wind the left hand adjuster in finger tight while leaving the right hand one out and this seems to minimise the wheel shifting as I take up the weight on the nut.As earlier,I hold the right hand nut and tighten the left side.
Two pics showing clearly why I do not use the alignment marks on the bike,here you can see a clear difference of 3 mm.
Right, job done, lube that chain and go ride.
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