Hi everyone. I recently bought a 1998 Suzuki Bandit 600 with 10,000 miles on it. The chain looked like it needed a cleaning and lube so I did what I do with my bicycle chains. I wiped it down thoroughly and scrubbed it with citrus solvent. At the time I was not aware of o rings being permanently lubed from inside. Have I just ruined or shortened the life of the chain? What should I be watching for?

Thanks.

Bert  

At worst, you may have removed the surface oils from the o-rings. That is easily remedied by reoiling them. Most any oil will work fine. You don't want to soak the chain, just add a drop to each o-ring, then spin the rear wheel to rotate the chain a couple dozen times and wipe off the excess oil. Excess oil simply collects sand particles which will chew up the o-rings over time.

When you lube the chain (other than oiling the o-rings) you are just lubricating the roller surfaces where they impact and slide along the sprocket teeth. This prolongs sprocket life and does nothing for the chain itself. Do not get any of that lube between the chainplates, where the o-rings are. It will collect sand particles even worse than excess oil will :-)

regards,
Joe  

What you should be watching for, as the chain ages, is individual o-rings failing. This is identified by carefully examining the chain for tight spots as you slowly rotate it around the sprockets.

When an o-ring fails, the grease will seep out of the link joint and allow that single joint to wear just like all link joints used to wear back before o-rings. The chain will "stretch" at that single joint, as it wears. With the chain adjusted, if you slowly rotate the wheel, continuously checking chain tension, as the stretched spot rides onto the wheel sprocket, it will be squeezed back to it's original length and the chain will feel noticably tighter until that stretched spot rotates back off the wheel sprocket again.

Chain stretch causes wear to the sprockets. When you detect the first o-ring failure, it's time to change the chain. If you do so, it's not necessary to replace the sprockets when you replace the chain like we used to do in the old days. Typically, if you replace the chain at the first sign of o-ring failure, a steel drive sprocket will last through a couple of chains and a steel wheel sprocket will last for 5 or 6 chains. That also assumes that you keep the rollers and sprocket teeth lubed.

If that's the original chain, at ten years old the o-rings are already marginal and could start failing at any time.

I'm easy on tires and typically, I just replace the chain when I replace the rear tire. If I buy a tire that I only expect to last 10,000-12,000 miles, I buy a cheap o-ring chain to go with it. When I buy a tire I expect to last 20,000 miles I buy an RK X-ring chain to go with it. Of course, at 20,000 miles I'm still talking about replacing the chain and tire in 18 months or so, so aging o-rings are not a factor for me.

regards,
Joe  

Thanks for the great advice Joe. I really appreciate it.

Bert