Chain tension? Where's yours at?

[MVent03]

So I put new tires on a couple months ago. Cleaned the chain well while the wheels were off. I noticed that there seemed to be a few links that were "kinked". To be honest I had gotten kind of lax with my chain maintenance. I'd spray lube on it every 300-400mi and I rarely scrubbed it. So I cleaned the thing like crazy and hey!, did ya know our chains are silver?

Re-lubed it,  adjusted the tension, all has been well until this last week. Started noticing a wierd rattle noise on decceleration.
Checked the chain and the thing is so loose that on the side stand the chain almost touches the center stand. Less than a cm.

I'll fix it but I was wondering what mark most people have thiers at?

I'm guessing the good cleaning and lube loosened the chain up and gave me more play.

[Zwerski]

I have just under an inch of sag.

[Falcon01]

Ditto.  Just under an inch.

[Suzuki Stevo]

I have always stayed away from the tight end of the Spec, chains get tighter as the suspension compresses, true with dirt bikes....assuming it's the same with street bikes, I may have been sweating nothing all these years? 

[Formori]

Last time I checked my tension it was about an inch of play, but it really needs to be cleaned! 

And Stevo, dirtbikes have a huge range of suspension travel and the mounting points of the swingarm and front sprocket being different mean that there's a much bigger difference in chain tension over the range of travel.

Streetbikes don't have as long a travel as that, and also have better mounting geometry of the front sprocket and the swingarm, so there's much less change in tension over the range of the suspension movement.

If you've got over an inch of play in your chain, you should tighten it to prevent problems in your chain cropping up.

[MVent03]

So while tightening it this morning I noticed that my left side , chain side, was set slightly further up than the right. I'm guessing I didn't tighten it up well enough and the torque from the engine has slowly edged it up closer and out of alignment.

I fixed it and I'm going to torque it on the higher end for lock-nut type axles. 69ft/lbs

[jestercinti]

I keep mine at 1".  A little less, and mine tends to tighten when I hit bumps (a lot of them in OH.  The state never has enough $$ to fix the roads).

[dam]

I check mine often. It's at about 1-1/8". I call it good and ride it
Here in my end of Ohio there are lots of good roads. There are some that are pretty bad though.

[Suzuki Stevo]

And Stevo, dirtbikes have a huge range of suspension travel and the mounting points of the swingarm and front sprocket being different mean that there's a much bigger difference in chain tension over the range of travel.

The dirt bike/bikes I am referring to have/had less travel than the GS, remember I am an Old Fart, when I started riding dirt bikes, all the pipes went under the frame and both shocks stood straight up and down, fullface helmets had not been invented yet. 

EDIT: Having the swingarm pivot and the countershaft sprocket on the same shaft would be ideal, this is something that I remember reading about in the early 70's, not sure if anybody was ever able to engineer that into a design? 

[Dizzledan]

Here in my end of Ohio there are lots of good roads. There are some that are pretty bad though.

I'm around the NE Columbus area and I agree. I love skirting up and down 315 that runs parallel to 23. Lots and lots of curves. Then something like Morse rd. is the exact opposite. You can slalom through the potholes (still fun nevertheless).