BEWARE: VOLAR COLORED CHAINS

[BassWoW]

Like stated above beware!

I bought this chain two months ago and it has led me astray. Today replaced my front sprocket and chain. Took off my front sprocket cover and it was LOADED with grit.  Ever see a cake pan with all the batter in it evenly.... Take that and turn it black brown. Hard as a rock. Between the amount of cleaning; I figured out why NEUTRAL was so hard to get into. When the bike is parked the grit would harden up around the shifter rod. Then when you try to put into neutral or change gears it wouldnt budge unless you moved the bike forward. Thats gone now and it works perfectly.

Volar chains look great- big selection of colors and andonized steels. Then when you replace it early on becuase the first kink started. Every week I would adjust my chain further. It devolped a second kink after a week. Then I had a tight spot on each side. One week later another kink. and finally had to replace the chain- the wheel was all the way back now.

I lost 6 O-rings inside the sprocket cover. Thats only to account those. The rollars ate my front sprocket and made them very thin and shark like. Between the look of the new Sprocket and the old you can see the difference. will post pics later.

Lubing the chain was routine every 500 miles and cleaning. I ride alot so I made sure about that. I've read very few reviews on these chains but I will not go back.

BTW I put in a 17th sprocket. Feels awesome and i'm not stuck in 4th on backroads in town. Next week will be the rear sprocket-

Total time the project should have taken: 2hrs max.
Time taken: 6 hours of yelling and saying things I'm sure the people across town could here.

:bs:volar chains. Beware.

I'm onto my next chain its an X-ring did vx2 -wait for my next review.

[craigs449]

sux to hear cause i just put a black volar chain on the gs about 1500 miles ago.......crossing fingers....

[BassWoW]

Took a month so  averaging 18 days and extra I put on at least 2300 miles before any issues.

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[GSF500]

THAT SUX Thanks for the Heads up, I was thinking about getting one. I am still on my stock chain now, What do you recommend when I change it I wish you Luck

[DoD#i]

DID, RK, Tsubaki - Your basic established good brand names.

Volar - never heard of them till now...is it chinese chain? Company has one of those "handy to the west coast ports where our crap comes in from china" addresses...and certainly does not mention where it's made on the website.

[Dizzledan]

That sucks to hear man, sorry about your luck. I looked at the Volar chains for the colors they had, but I couldn't find many reviews on them. I ended up going with a Bikemaster BMOR O-ring chain (middle of the road budget wise). They also make an X-ring chain (BMXR). Been about 1000 miles so far and all I've done is lube it and check tension.

[BassWoW]

DID, RK, Tsubaki - Your basic established good brand names.

Volar - never heard of them till now...is it chinese chain? Company has one of those "handy to the west coast ports where our crap comes in from china" addresses...and certainly does not mention where it's made on the website.

I ended up with a DID chain. Stick with the good brands-

[BassWoW]

DID, RK, Tsubaki - Your basic established good brand names.

Volar - never heard of them till now...is it chinese chain? Company has one of those "handy to the west coast ports where our crap comes in from china" addresses...and certainly does not mention where it's made on the website.

Also when researching the brand. They import these chains from china and the chain is built as a generic brand. I read some other posts from different forums and it all led to one thing- bad front sprokect- bad rollars and o-ring breakage.

[vortexnow]

DON'T BUY VOLAR CHAINS!!! The first one rusted up solid on some links internally between orings (with normal chain lube maintenance and bike was never hosed down with water and entered into shows). I mistakenly gave them the benefit of the doubt and bought another (they would not warranty the first one because it had been a year).  After 300 miles on the 2nd chain I noticed aluminum shavings on my rear wheel which was the new chain destroying the inside of my rear Vortex sprocket. I figured out the the tooling Volar uses to make the chain was out of adjustment so one side of the chain rivets were tighter than the other.  I could figure this out by pulling the slack out of chain by laying it down flat on table and then pulling it the other direction,  there was 2 inches more slack from side to side total length.  This made the chain run a side load on the sprocket. Keep in mind this is a single sided swing arm so the wheel alignment could not be off.  I called Volar and told them what happened and they had me send them the new chain back for warranty. I included many pictures of the difference of side play in rivets and destruction of my VORTEX sprocket along with an explanation longer than this thread.  Meanwhile,  I ordered a new chain and sprocket from VORTEX which I installed and have not had any problems with.  The VORTEX chain was not that much more and it is made in Japan - NOT China crap.  5 weeks later Volar emailed me asking me for MORE information to continue processing the warranty claim.  I told them I was not going to play games and wanted my money back or I would post my bad experience with them all over the internet.  They refused to refund my money. I warned them they would lose more money due to the postings compared to ripping customers off.  I encourage everyone to spend a few minutes - or more - to expose these stupid Chinese companies that are running our economy into the ground by diverting our hard earned dollars toward garbage.  Thanks for reading! 

[adidasguy]

I have a blue one on Suzi and 5 months later, no problems at all.
I lube it regularly. No issues at all.

[Slack]

I used one once.  Never again.  With regular cleaning it still kinked up and spat o-rings: within 5,000 miles it was time for something different.

[BassWoW]

I'm sure some people will have good results; I was amazed on how bad the company was for the customers.

There inexpensive chains.

I have a blue one on Suzi and 5 months later, no problems at all.
I lube it regularly. No issues at all.

[The Buddha]

I hate chains. I have a did Q ring on mine and am seeing a couple tight spots already. Well maintained ... clean too ... and 2000 miles barely ... I hate all chains ... some worse than others, but that is one of those things making this stupid cheap a$$ sheite of a bike into a $$$$ pit for anyone who rides it.

Stupid suzuki ... stupid suzuki .... stupid suzuki ...

Cool.
Buddha.

[rexpepper651]

i like how they have alot of colors

[bwanna]

Yep. Same issue here.  '82 GS450T.  16/43 on the sprockets.  Bought a Volar red 104 link chain.  I commute everyday about 40 miles each way.  After about 300 miles my rear sprocket is like shark's teeth just as described here.  The chain has obvious kinks and could very well be off from one side to the other as was described.  The chain creates a weird vibration that makes it pound up and and side to side.  Lost of metal shavings, etc.  The Chain not only sucks, but it's dangerous. 

Don't buy VOLAR!!!!!

UPDATE:  After pulling the chain, cleaning it up and examining it, I can affirm that this is real crap material.  A couple of the roller started to break off edges.  There is extreme play between the rivets and the sides.  Considering I only put about 5000 miles on this chain, I'm now surprised it didn't kill me.  I also discovered that the sprocket teeth were chipping because 3 of the links had so much play in the rivets that they landed high up on tooth and THEN settled in the groove once the sprocket rotated a little more.  This constant action created a hammering affect that caused the teeth tips to crack and break off.

Re the cleaning question from another reader: I only would wipe the chain with a rag and sprayed it with Chain Wax once a week.

DO NOT GET VOLAR CHAINS.

[Blueknyt]

i see a comon thing here, most that seem to have problems with thier chain seem to claim "reg maint" "cleaned/oiled reg" kinda feel,  i wonder.  what are you guys cleaning the chain with?  it could be that even mild solvants may be hurting the cheap O-rings and they are distroying themselves, giving access to water/moisture and dirt.  (im just takeing a stab in the dark mind you."  ive run DID, RK and some other off brand chains, some O-ring, X-ring and even non o-ring.   some i would get better miles out of, some wore sprokets faster then others, but cant say ive had a chain fail or CHEW up a sprocket.   ive had 2 chains come off 2 bikes, one was on my 82 GSX750E and other was on my 89 gs500. BOTH were clip type master link failures. both chains were technicly well beyond service limits and had been in use a long time.  I dont clean my chains with solvants. i use chain lube and a rag. thats it. hell for a long time i used motor oil and a paint brush once a week.  i think once a month or approx 500 miles i would pop the chain and give it an oil bath in a bakeing pan while running the paint brush over the links.  but thats me. and no, im not a maint nut. fact i tend to run things till they can't be fixed anymore.

[adidasguy]

Suzi has her blue chain and it is doing fine.
Her OEM chain died after 8000 miles because of foaming engine cleaner and other things that got on to it and destroyed o-rings.
Strong cleaners will damage the o-rings - either by making them rot or swell up and make the chain stiff.

Be careful cleaning the engine - that stuff will damage the chain.

[cWj]

Did a Google search for "Volar color o-ring chain", and guess what topped the results.

Wow. You guys r famous.

[The Buddha]

I hate chains I hate chains I hate chains ...

And what moron puts O rings in a chain where it will be doused with gas anytime you pull the tank or drain the carbs ...

Yes a moron who plans on being rich off the backs of cheapo bike riders.

And suzuki too ...  SUZUKI

Cool.
Buddha.

[Electrojake]

I hate chains I hate chains I hate chains ...

Cool.
Buddha.

Hey, hey! Easy friend. 
If it weren't for chains I couldn't ride most of the winter.
Just saying.