Chain

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I have spoken to the Putoline importer in Spain, they don't have the Putoline chain wax and they will not have it in the future....NO DEMAND :(
 
Years ago Dirt Bike magazine did a chain lube test. They had a chain running on two sprockets that they could move apart thus increasing the load on the chain . A temperature sensing gun was aimed at the chain. The theory was that friction produces heat. All of the main players in the chain lube business were tried including motor oil, gear oil, and even WD-40. The product that came out on top was Tri-flow. Goes on as a liquid and then the carrier evaporates. My son was a nationally ranked bicycle racer and it was his and many of his contemporaries lube of choice. Works equally well on standard or o-ring chains. My two cents.
 
Interesting but a little off.

Increasing the tension increase load is something that shouldnt happen on a bike.

Most chains are over tensioned and should be adjusted at full load, if you carry a
pillion then adjust with load for 2. A slack chain is better than a tight one. Watched
the World Superbikes and the rear chains look real slack, yet no failures.

The reason there are no boil in waxes on the shelves is economics. Dealers put large
mark ups on. I pay £16 and sell for £20. In a dealers they would sell for £35-40. Folks
dot like paying £20 so dealers would zero sales.

Andy

PS All chains get hot try touching your chain after a good blast
 
He He! Remember a marshall running on the track to pick up a chain that had come of one of the racers bikes, he soon dropped it once he had picked it up, he got a few cheers tho. :lol:
 
Ever tried boiling wheel bearing grease ? what a bloody painful messy disaster that was outside on the coleman cooker, it will melt a whole pot of lead projectiles , but I couldn't get that bloody grease to melt, but it did bubble and spit scourching hot bubbles of gease over my hands and up my arms, would like to find some thing good that would actually melt and do the chain some good
 
I've aways used Duckhams chain grease (comes in a large tin), just plonk it over a small camping gas stove with the cleaned chain coiled up on top of the solid grease. 15-20 min later the chain has sunk into the molten grease. Fish it out (helps if you remember to put a length of wire around one of the ends!) and hang it up on a wall like a dead snake with the grease tin below to catch the drips.
 
Steve it needs a little longer, you have to get the chain, big and metal, to the
same temp as grease. Should be hot enough to drain all the excess off leaving
the chain reletavely clean, any lumps of grease and it aint got hot enough.
 
Yes, actually I leave the chain in the grease pot for a while for exactly this reason. Really don't know why I did not put that in as well (age? mus t remember to drink more red wine !!) and thanks for pointing it out.

/Steve.
 
Found Putoline wax is readily avalible in NZ so will give that a go this weekend, wonder if I should go and find the burn cream first.
 
andychain said:
Interesting but a little off.

Increasing the tension increase load is something that shouldnt happen on a bike.

Most chains are over tensioned and should be adjusted at full load, if you carry a
pillion then adjust with load for 2. A slack chain is better than a tight one. Watched
the World Superbikes and the rear chains look real slack, yet no failures.

The reason there are no boil in waxes on the shelves is economics. Dealers put large
mark ups on. I pay £16 and sell for £20. In a dealers they would sell for £35-40. Folks
dot like paying £20 so dealers would zero sales.

Andy

PS All chains get hot try touching your chain after a good blast
Click to expand...

Friction=heat. The hypothesis was that the lube that allowed the chain to operate at the lowest temperature had reduced friction the most. Tri-Flo won and does not fling off after the carrier has evaporated.
 
Exactly as the Chaintec spray £10 for 2 large cans.

Any readers of the forum drop in at Shepton this Saturday or kempton next.
 
An old electric chip pan fryer is good as a boiling pot for the chain grease 8)
 
After purchasing a tin of putoline chain wax I have been rather impressed, 1000km and there is still grease on the chain and very little on the back wheel, the spray on stuff was all over the back wheel first time out
 
In his early 1950s design note book for the AJS 7R and E95 motors Mr Jack Williams wrote that a drip fed primary chain was around 90% efficient especially at high chain speeds and with incorrect lubrication it was lower still. Thus assuming a good G50 was producing 40 HP at the crank thats a 4 HP loss in the primary chain which equals the heat output of three 1000 watt electric fire elements...which explained my burnt finger when using it, with brain disengaged, to check primary chain tension on a friends G50 after a couple of 90 plus mph practice laps of the Isle of Man in the late 60s.
Ever seen the Renold recommended chain speeds to use with various lubrication systems or even the chain speeds and power we should be putting through them IF we were to use chain as it was designed to be employed? If we did employ our chains correctly we wiould not move very fast and our chain life would be around 15,000 hours or at 40 mph 600,000 miles......which is a good indication of just how incorrectly we employ chain.
When Rotary Norton were still in existance there were a few rotary Nortons with 80,000 plus miles still on their original Renold GP secondary chain and sprockets, with, acording to a friend somewhat involved with the servicing side, still lots of adjustment left......but the chain did run within a proper oil bath chain case with proper oil bath lubrication and not oil mist as employed on Norton Dominators / Commandos and such items covering secondary chains do NOT give the race bike look do they!
I trust everyone is aware that even when having their chain go swimming in hot chain grease that Renold recommend it should be done every 1000 miles and at lower mileage in bad weather!! Dont believe?? Go read a little Renold motor cycle chain leaflet! In my young days it never happened but we usually had o freshly greased rear chain at the ready and simply pulled the freshly greased one on with the old one as we pulled it off...so much easier and less messy!!
I asume the same applies to chain......Once asked a Gentleman / Senior Engineer in the belt industry for an indication of how incorrect belt tension effects belt life. As usual he started his reply with...'Oh I can do better than that because we did testing on this very subject decades ago........ I can probably dig out the test results for you to study if you want but basically a correctly tensioned belt will have a life 3 to 4 times greater than that of an incorrectly tensioned belt'. The other day I asked him how modern belt construction materials had effected the torque carrying capacity of the teeth....the reply based on testing was very interesting.....for someone like me that is!!
Next time your belt or chain fails or has to be replaced prematurely ask yourself if you had it tensioned correctly.
 
+1 on the chain boiled in grease.
I have just gone back to doing this for my chains using a Putoline grease pot, ran my race bike last Sunday, three races plus practice, notice how much quieter the chain is and spray it with a topical wax after every race.
Rear chain only as both bikes have belt primary's
Will have the race bike chain off this weekend to regrease in the pot!!!
Regards Mike
 
I got a drive and timing chain from andychain today! Thank you Andy they look good. Always a good day to get home from work and find a good item for the restoration on the porch!
 
The Triumph Speed Twin / Thunderbird workshop manual recommends three times a year for boiling up the chain in grease: start of winter, halfway through winter, start of summer.
 
Thats OK for the average owner covering 3,000 or less miles a year as so many apparently do these days!! I assume Triumph never read or understood a Renold motor cycle chain booklet!! Or did someone at Triumph have a deal with Renold to get a cut from the increase in rear chain sales?
To aid your knowledge a quote from the Renold and Coventry Chain Company publication ' MOTOR CYCLE CHAIN MAINTENANCE.

An exposed chain which is not fitted with an efficient oil -feed must be removed from the machine every 1,000 miles (or oftener in bad weather) immersed in a paraffin bath,and scrubbed perfectly clean. After the paraffin has dried off, the chain should be immersedin chain lubricant which has been melted in a shallow containerover a pan of boiling water. Move the chain about to ensure that the lubricant penetrates to all working surfaces. After 10 minutes immersion , allow the lubricant to cool. Remove the chain from the pan and wipe off surpus lubricant. ( The leading oil companies have special lubricants which they recommend for this purpose).
Before refitting the chain thoroughly clean the chain wheels.

I once asked a friend why the hell he had fitted a Renold GP chain to the rear of his Seeley G50 as its increased weight was merely reducing power to the rear wheel. I gave him a length of new ' MADE ION ENGLAND ' proper Renold chain which he employed at a Snetterton meeting and he reported the bike was more responsive and could he have a few more lengths....... Wish I had bought that bloody great pile of boxes of 25 ft lengths of MADE IN ENGLAND 5/8 x 1/4 Renold chain I was once offered rather cheaply instead of just a couple.
 
If I could find the idiot that invented the "heavy duty" I would punch him or her.

Quality of steel and manufacturing tolerances in much more important.

My father worked for Renold in the Vick Doyle era and the stories he has told me !!!!

Unfortunately Renold is not the chain it was. I have sold iwis for over 40 years and except
where they dont make a size will not sell anything else......I like to sleep at night.

Andy
 
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