Hello,

Just picked up an 07 GS500F for my wife to ride.  It is (was) in great shape, until I was out riding it yesterday and the chain came off and tried to eat the left side of the swingarm.    Shame on me for not checking the tension I suppose, although I did (probably wasn't tight enough).

It's all good though, the hardest part was getting the bike home, because the rear of the swingarm was bent (bad) and therefore the nuts on the sprocket/hub hit them...thus making it impossible for the wheel to turn.  It was a fiasco, but the bike is now back in the garage.

New swingarm and adjusters have been ordered and will be here in a few days.

What was surprising was how easy it was to disassemble the bike.  A friend and I pulled the tire, unbolted the shock and dropped the swingarm in under 30 minutes.  Putting everything back together should be a breeze too.  These bikes are nice to work on, and the center stand is great.

Welcome!

Chain cleaning, inspection, lubrication and adjustment every 500 miles (an easier number to remember when looking at your odometer); will help a chain last longer than 15,000 miles.

Your absolute best friend is "DuPont Teflon Multiuse Dry Wax Lubricant". 

Really cheap and easily available at Lowe's:
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=213197-39963-D00110101&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=1059839&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=sim&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

It is by far the cleanest and most effective chain lubricant I have ever used.  And I've tried a bunch of them.  I'm hearing more and more good feedback about this product and I can vouch for it myself. 

The best part is, in this packaging it is really cheap!  Did I mention it's not expensive? 

Welcome! 

Welcome!

Welcome to the forums! How many miles on the bike?

new swingarm came today.... $14 off of ebay and looks almost new. 

going to put the bike back together here in a bit and see how she rides.  Thanks for the fine welcome. 

I always inspect the chain before every ride.  I bet you might too now. 

You got lucky there, riders have been seriously hurt snapping or dropping the chain.  My friend's dad actually went face first through a concrete bus stop snapping a chain mid corner, there were pieces of the concrete reinforcing embedded in his helmet.

Quote from: HardcoreKeith on May 12, 2011, 08:31:48 AM
I always inspect the chain before every ride.  I bet you might too now. 

+1

Quote from: HardcoreKeith on May 12, 2011, 08:31:48 AM
I always inspect the chain before every ride.  I bet you might too now. 

I cleaned the chain, inspected it for tightness and rode.  Came back, tightened it some more, after which it came off.  Not like I just got on the bike blindly and rode off without checking it.  As I was looking at it, I was thinking how flimsy of a setup the sprockets/chain appeared to be...but for a bike that costs 3k what do you expect I guess. 

I'm just glad it happened to me and not my wife, she would have binned it for sure.  Thankfully, now the bike is back together and she was riding it around this afternoon.

Quote from: Cosimo_Zaretti on May 12, 2011, 10:45:03 AM
You got lucky there, riders have been seriously hurt snapping or dropping the chain.  My friend's dad actually went face first through a concrete bus stop snapping a chain mid corner, there were pieces of the concrete reinforcing embedded in his helmet.

Is this common with these bikes?  Glad your friend's dad was ok.  Going down is never fun.

Quote from: philgs500F on May 12, 2011, 05:11:30 PM
I cleaned the chain, inspected it for tightness and rode.  Came back, tightened it some more, after which it came off.

Not to offend, but did you happen to adjust the chain on the centerstand, rather than following the manual?

That sequence of events makes me wonder if you overtightened the chain, which is dead easy to do if you adjust while on the centerstand....

Other common thing would be not tightening the axle bolt sufficiently after adjusting.

Quote from: DoD#i on May 12, 2011, 05:30:41 PM

Quote from: philgs500F on May 12, 2011, 05:11:30 PM
I cleaned the chain, inspected it for tightness and rode.  Came back, tightened it some more, after which it came off.

Not to offend, but did you happen to adjust the chain on the centerstand, rather than following the manual?

That sequence of events makes me wonder if you overtightened the chain, which is dead easy to do if you adjust while on the centerstand....

Other common thing would be not tightening the axle bolt sufficiently after adjusting.

great points, no offense taken.

I've only owned 1 other bike with a centerstand, and it had a shaft drive