Just wanting some input or opinions on chains or chain brands. a general question i've got too...any 520 chain with 112 links will work correct?.i've got a stock rear sprocket, 15t on front, i've been lookin at tsubaki's just cuz their advertising alot in the uk bike mags i buy, " i personally live in Indiana, in US"....also i'd say DID and Renthal's are good too, any input? thanks
Personally, I'd go for the DID chain (for no specific reason). It's just that I haven't heard anything bad about them.
EDIT: be sure to buy the right chain, as the sprocket has been modified in 1994.
Quote from: s10nova on March 15, 2012, 03:12:36 PM
Just wanting some input or opinions on chains or chain brands. a general question i've got too...any 520 chain with 112 links will work correct?.i've got a stock rear sprocket, 15t on front, i've been lookin at tsubaki's just cuz their advertising alot in the uk bike mags i buy, " i personally live in Indiana, in US"....also i'd say DID and Renthal's are good too, any input? thanks
The owners manual says D.I.D. 520 VM 110 links
that is for the stock gears.
However
My bike OEM came with Regina chain.........
I figured I'd go with Regina for replacement as I got 21,000 on this one and still going..
But
then I found out that Regina has a weird master link, requires a special $$$$ tool....
So
I bought the D.I.D. VM uses the standard rivet master link...so my motion pro tool will work on it....
Will install probably this weekend..
Cookie
Personally I'd go with the bikemaster chain. I've got one on my 07 and it's great. Very heavy duty. Plus it's a lot cheaper.
Be sure to replace your sprockets at the same time otherwise you'll wear out one or the other prematurely. JT sprockets are very good for the money. $38 for front and rear combined.
The thing you gotta realize is the GS only puts out 40ish HP, and most 520 chains are designed for more than double that. Putting a $150 chain on the GS is kinda wasteful IMHO.
Make sure it's O-Ring or X-Ring. The cheap ones don't have this, and last maybe 10K miles. The brands mentioned above should all be O-Ring or X-Ring. I had to have a motorcycle shop put on my chain since I didn't have the rivet tool. Temporary links can be dangerous...go with a permanent rivet link.
A chain is like a parachute...you want a good one. You just don't want it to break. Very bad things will happen if it does.
I've used a tsubaki before on my dirt bike. Held up pretty good and did not stretch much. They are fairly inexpensive as well.
I put RK chains on my old Hondas because they came with RK and I put DID chains on my GS500s because they came with DID. No problems with either and they were priced about the same. Got the same DID O-ring chain that came with a clip type master link from Chaparral for about $55 for years until the price took a big jump about 3 years ago so I got a RK-XSO chain then. Last year I bought a Parts Unlimited O-ring chain with a clip link from Dennis Kirk for about $60 and have put about 6k miles on it so far and it seems to be as good as the DID were. Quad staked and made in Japan, I suspect they are made by the same people that make the Bikemaster chains. :dunno_black:
I ride year around here in NE Ohio so my chains run in salt water for a lot of miles each year. Don't think I've ever worn out a chain, when they come up kinky in the spring I change them, seals go first. Got more miles per chain back 10-13 years ago with the 97 GS when I was going 20k miles a year. Now in my declining years I do 5-10k miles a year but I'm still out there every winter splashing thru the salt water on my rusty old 02 GS.
I've never changed a rear sprocket putting 80-100k miles on 4 of my bikes and never saw a need to change one. I put a new front one on every chain or two. My GS500 chain record:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GSbrakeschains.jpg
Quote from: Kijona on March 16, 2012, 06:05:00 AM
The thing you gotta realize is the GS only puts out 40ish HP, and most 520 chains are designed for more than double that. Putting a $150 chain on the GS is kinda wasteful IMHO.
Depends on how you handle the whole chain-thing. There are people who buy expensive chains that take a long time to get worn and therefore only change the sprockets. Others buy average-prized sprockets and chain, but change them at the same time. In my opinion the latter makes a lot more sense.