half link opinions

o0norton0o

o0norton0o

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I bought a used enduro (86 yamaha xt350) The previous owner couldn't fix it so he sold it to me after putting on a bunch of new parts including tires. The way stock chain lengths work, by design the rear wheel is close to the front of the swingarm slots when the chain is new and has no stretch to it and that is a known number of links (so long as the sprockets are stock of course) The stock chain is 130 links. The guy I bought the bike from put a brand new taller than normal aspect tire on the rear, so the stock number of links on a brand new chain have the tire rubbing the center of the swingarm because the tire aspect is too tall...

The bike needed a new chain anyway, so I bought 2 chains in the next size up which is 132 links. I bought one standard chain without O-rings and one O-ring chain. Since I am at the back of the adjuster with the correct chain slack at 132 links on the non O-ring chain, my plan is to ride these knobby tires on the asphalt roads to local forest roads so the tires should wear down reasonably fast at the same time the chain will be stretching. I could use the half link immediately and gain some space for adjustment as the chain stretches, but there's a lot of info on how half links are weak,... etc

I figure that if that knobby tire wears down fast, I can eventually switch over to the O-ring chain and cut it down to 130 links. In the future, I'll just buy the correct aspect tire and the 130 links will always work correctly.

The other option is to buy a new rear sprocket that is 2 teeth less and the 130 link chain will work, but I'll then be at the back of the slot in the swingarm with all the same options...

All of the problem is because of the wrong aspect tire... What is the consensus? Are half links good or bad??
 
o0norton0o said:
I bought a used enduro (86 yamaha xt350) The previous owner couldn't fix it so he sold it to me after putting on a bunch of new parts including tires. The way stock chain lengths work, by design the rear wheel is close to the front of the swingarm slots when the chain is new and has no stretch to it and that is a known number of links (so long as the sprockets are stock of course) The stock chain is 130 links. The guy I bought the bike from put a brand new taller than normal aspect tire on the rear, so the stock number of links on a brand new chain have the tire rubbing the center of the swingarm because the tire aspect is too tall...

The bike needed a new chain anyway, so I bought 2 chains in the next size up which is 132 links. I bought one standard chain without O-rings and one O-ring chain. Since I am at the back of the adjuster with the correct chain slack at 132 links on the non O-ring chain, my plan is to ride these knobby tires on the asphalt roads to local forest roads so the tires should wear down reasonably fast at the same time the chain will be stretching. I could use the half link immediately and gain some space for adjustment as the chain stretches, but there's a lot of info on how half links are weak,... etc

I figure that if that knobby tire wears down fast, I can eventually switch over to the O-ring chain and cut it down to 130 links. In the future, I'll just buy the correct aspect tire and the 130 links will always work correctly.

The other option is to buy a new rear sprocket that is 2 teeth less and the 130 link chain will work, but I'll then be at the back of the slot in the swingarm with all the same options...

All of the problem is because of the wrong aspect tire... What is the consensus? Are half links good or bad??
Click to expand...
Half links are fine for that low power bike.

How about put the correct tire on it?
 
concours said:
Half links are fine for that low power bike.

How about put the correct tire on it?
Click to expand...
That's what I thought, but wondered about it.. I considered just PM'ing you for an opinion instead of posting this thread 😂😂😂😂


Yeah, that's the plan eventually but since I just bought the bike, I want to see how good the engine is running before I spend money on the tires... Also, I'm not sure what tire to buy based on how much on road/off road I end up doing, so I have some homework to do on that. I can make the unused tire that's on the bike work with the 2 extra chain links, while I figure out where this bike "is at" mechanically, and go from there. The guy I bought it from rebuilt the top and had the exhaust cam lobe off by 90 degrees and couldn't get it to run, so he sold it to me. I found the valve timing problem and it doesn't smoke a single puff out the exhaust so far... It's definitely weird to have 1 down and 5 up on the left side of the bike (6 gears) It's a weird bike. Single cylinder, 4 valve, double overhead cam, with dual side by side carbs. One mechanical throttle body and one vacuum throttle body working together... It does run well, so I'm hopeful. It seems to have a cult following as a versatile dual sport bike...🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞
 
concours said:

There work great, priced right.
Click to expand...
That's more like what I was thinking to mount... You gotta see the tire that's on there now.. the knobs look like there an inch tall and more of a dirt tire than a combo on/off road tire..... I bookmarked the page and will get back to it. Today is test ride day and it's going to rain for the next 3 days after that, so I'm doing some shake down today...
 
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