Chain Lube

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highbury731

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My BSA Super Rocket had a chain guard which shielded both runs of the chain from any wash off the tyre. I added a pipe from the oil tank breather onto the lower run of the chain, and any vapours kept the chain nicely oiled. Only a little marking the ground. The chain stayed happy long term, little adjusting needed.

I would like to shield the lower run of the chain on my Rapide similarly, but it does not look easy.
 
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BigEd

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The chain enclosure was a really good feature on the MZ Supa 5 I used to run and I can't remember ever replacing the chain. The MZ had a Q.D. rear wheel that left the chain and enclosure in place for easy tyre changes etc. A similar set up on a Vincent would be good but would make rear wheel removal more difficult as the sprocket and rear brake drum come out with the wheel. Worth thinking about though.
 
b'knighted

b'knighted

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I have an unused chain enclosure kit I bought on ebay to fit on the Knight. This uses rubber gaiters (think Norton Interpol 2 if MZ offends) and a GRP sprocket enclosure. I remember seeing such things fitted, I thought with cast ally enclosures, at rallies in the 80s, and had wanted one since then.
 
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stumpy lord

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b'knighted said:
I have an unused chain enclosure kit I bought on ebay to fit on the Knight. This uses rubber gaiters (think Norton Interpol 2 if MZ offends) and a GRP sprocket enclosure. I remember seeing such things fitted, I thought with cast ally enclosures, at rallies in the 80s, and had wanted one since then.
Click to expand...

see Forty years on for this mod.
stumpy lord
 
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Hugo Myatt

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At one time someone market such a kit using MZ rubbers for the Vincent Twin. I had one many years ago and used it for a while. Unfortunately the rubbers were unsupported at the forward end and eventually one day it picked up on the bottom run of the chain and destroyed the kit. There were two other disadvantages - It was a pig to get the rear wheel out and the rear sprocket and brake drum got rather hot.
 
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timetraveller

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I've still got the prototype. The chap who made them only lived about 20 - 30 miles from me and advertised for a rear frame and wheel with brake. I lent him the bits for a few month/a year and he gave me a kit in exchange. It was designed to fit over the largest rear sprocket there is and so is rather large when used on a bike with a 46 tooth rear sprocket. I have never used it and did wonder about the flexible parts. They are designed to go over a 3/8 x 5/8 chain so how they would get on with some of the more modern chains I don't know. Such a chain guard would certainly keep the chain oil and the rest of the bike well separated.
 
b'knighted

b'knighted

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timetraveller said:
It was designed to fit over the largest rear sprocket there is and so is rather large when used on a bike with a 46 tooth rear sprocket. I have never used it and did wonder about the flexible parts. They are designed to go over a 3/8 x 5/8 chain so how they would get on with some of the more modern chains I don't know.
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I haven't fitted mine and one reason was that the rubber gaiters did appear to be aimed at a point outboard of my chain run. I hadn't stopped to consider that my 'O' ring chain may be to wide for the tunnel but I had wondered if there was room for the rubber between the chain and the widest part of my tyre.
 
Monkeypants

Monkeypants

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Re Oring chains sapping power- Jim Comstock, a well known engine Norton Engine builder and ex racer has a dyno in his work shop and dyno tests his many modifications. He also dyno tested the same bike run with a standard non sealed chain then immediately after with a new xring chain. The result was zero difference in the graph, not even the thickness of a line.
The old Oring chains may have sucked away some extra power, but the new style Xring chains do not.
250 HP GP bikes are now all running x ring chains. If there was even 1% to be gained by using nonsealed chain, the race teams would run it.

Glen
 
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