[Jonny Astro]

I gave my Icon the once-over on sunday - cleaned, checked tyre pressures, etc. I've just bought an Abba stand, (it works very well), which lifts the back wheel and allowed me to clean and inspect the chain a bit more carefully than I've bothered to do before now.
Rotating the back wheel revealed no tight spots at all, so I thought I'd take a moment and adjust the chain carefully. The spec in the handbook is 27-29mm slack at mid point of the bottom run - I've never had a bike with such a tight adjustment tolerance before !
Anyhoo, I adjusted it carefully and got it pretty much spot-on.
I've had a couple of rides since and the difference this has made to the on-off throttle transition is remarkable - it's now very much smoother. The throttle is still very responsive, as so many people have noted, (personally I like it), but the "snatch" has gone.
Worth spending a few minutes getting this right I think...
Jonny

 

[Nick the Greek]

Keeping the chain well lubed will help as well

 

[Wild Man]

I need some kind of stand to get the wheel off the ground for easy adjustment.

The play in the chain (according to owners manual) is measured with the wheel on the ground? It might be different with the wheel off the ground?

 

[Jonny Astro]

I checked it on the ground after setting on the stand - no significant difference,

 

[Meancatdaddy]

Nothing worse than chain slap at slow speeds. Sounds horrible and makes the bike feel more jerky.

 

[Mixup]

Keeping the chain well lubed will help as well

Nick, stop with the lube stuff your making me nervous.

 

[littleowl]

I gave my Icon the once-over on sunday - cleaned, checked tyre pressures, etc. I've just bought an Abba stand, (it works very well),
Jonny

Is there one specifically for the Scrambler? I'd like to invest on one too

 

[Jonny Astro]

Hi littleowl,
There's no specific Scrambler fitting kit for the Superbike stand, but the one for the 796 Ducati fits fine. Only issue is the proximity of the left-side stand bar to the footrest. You need to raise the footrest, (you can lock it there by poking a bit of wood underneath where the spring goes), so it doesn't foul the stand when you come to take it down.
All in all not as tricky as it might sound - it all makes sense when you come to do it
Jonny

 

[bandejapaisa]

Can someone confirm this.... as the manual instructions are not clear at all.

My bike is on the ground, I find the half way point on the lower part of chain, I push down and release. I then put a tape measure up to it, and push up under the chain and see how much slack it has. I just measured and it was about 40mm , and the label reads 27-29mm. (Actually the label reads 27 divided by 29!... strange)... anyway, it appears my chain is too slack - strange because it's done 850 miles, and I only had my first service at 600 miles, so it either slackened in 250 miles, or I'm measuring it wrong, or Ducati Croydon didn't adjust it !!

Next question is regarding the torque on the adjuster. I did this with all bike wheels on the ground (i.e. no stand). I loosened the wheel shaft nuts, and then turned the adjusters equally on both sides - it didn't take much turning to bring the chain slack into the 27-29 tolerance from where it was. I then torqued the wheel shaft nuts back up to 145Nm - then am I supposed to tighten the adjusters to 10Nm. The manual reads "Correct tightening of the swingarm screws is critical to rider and passenger safety" - is this suggesting the correctly slack of the chain is critical, or the 10Nm is critical? I'd argue the former and then the 145Nm on the shaft nuts is critical. Is this just the translation that is misleading?

 

[Motorhead1977]

It's the translation. For some reason throughout the manual the division sign is used instead of a dash (-) to indicate that a range is being described. I am sure they mean all torque settings are critical to safety with the wheel shaft nuts especially so. Another note is that with O or X ring chain you are only lubing the exterior of the chain as the ring seals prevent it from getting inside the link shafts. Still keeping the chain clean and lubricated prevents external rust and will help extend the life of your chain.

 

[mtb2104]

recently I noticed quite a bit of buzz when holding constant @ 4000 RPM, and I think I need to tighten the chain a little..

According to the manual:

Make the rear wheel turn until you find the position where chain is tightest. Set the motorcycle on the side stand. With just a finger, push down the chain at the point of measurement and release. Measure the distance (A) between the centre of the chain pins and the aluminium section of the swinging arm. It must be: A = 27 ÷ 29 mm.

1. Does it mean I need to use the swinging arm (swing arm?) as my zero ground/starting point instead of using the ground?

2. Is A referring to:

a. Lowest point (pressed down with 1 finger) to neutral? (no finger)​

OR

b. Lowest point (pressed down with 1 finger) to highest point? (pressed up with 1 finger)​

 

[egicar]

I think that the best instructions are there:

 

[Vincelp]

Hello


I also studied this yesterday evening, coming to the conclusion that the owner's manual and the sticker on the swingarm were saying totally different things.


I also agree that the swingarm sticker is the righter one, the owner's manual being merely not understandable.


There's only a small strange thing in the the swingarm sticker : what's the use of pushing the chain downwards, when later the distance is measured between the chain rest position and highest position the chain can reach when pushed upwards. The rest position, in my humble opinion, is the position taken by the chain under its own weight and it must a little bit upon the position reached when the chain is pushed downwards.


Something like, in ascii art :


---------------- Swingarm as 0 reference --------------------------------------------------
---------------- A: maximum position when pushed upwards --------------------------
---------------- B: chain rest position ------------------------------------------------------
---------------- C: maximum position when pushed downwards ----------------------


the considered measure being B - A < 27 to 29 mm


Am I right ?

 

[Vincelp]

Hello

I made my chain tension setup this evening, using the procedure written on the swingarm and everything is fine.

Fyi, when the bike is on a workshop stand, rear wheel off the ground, the right displacement for the chain is 20 mm, instead of 29 mm wheel on the ground, bike on the sidestand. In the future, I'll use this value to set up my chain tension on the workshop stand, it's easier to move the wheel front or rear when it doesn't touch the ground.

 

[egicar]

Maybe we have to push down the chain to ensure the upper side is tight.
Very good to know 20 mm on the workshop stand