Anyone on this site still run a chain final drive? You know, (chain drive) Back when men were men and HD's were HD's.........If theres anyone left other than me, How many miles ya gettin out of your chain?

 

Me......I need to replace the 110 buck nickel plated Tsubaki chain on the my Ironhead....14k miles and it is stretched badly in a spot or two.

 

Historically I've gotten 12-15k between chains & sprockets. But that was some years ago and I don't think I'll be going back to chain anytime soon (I wish Harley had shaft drives).

 

Istill run one on my '81 Shovel...

And it even has a kicker, along with the electric start, something that is unheard of these days.

Don't ride it much anymore (kind of retired it), but I was getting about 20,000 miles out of a chain. Never really 'beat it' though, mainly just steady highway cruising..

 

Oh for the days of Harley Stars

 

After owning a couple of dozen chain driven Harleys,it has taken me a while to feel comfortable with the belt.Much quiter and no oil slinging everywhere.All the pro's tell me with proper maintenance,the belt and pulleys should last much longer than a chain.It is a little unnerving thinking how much of a chore it would be to replace the belt over a chain.We will see how it goes.

 

I hope I never have to go back to a drive chain.

 

Ran a Chain on my 84 FXR that I had from 91 to 06. Best Chain I found to run was a Tubesaki 0-ring chain rated at over 10,000 TSI. It was the only chain that I did not stretch or wear out quickly. That Chain with new Sprockets lasted many, many miles and many years.

 

“HD7585”

I use to get between 10-12k out of a harley chain, then starting buying 530 Italian O ring chains, they have been making heavy duty chains the longest I believe, I forget the name, got about 30k out of them.

As for “Anyone on this site still run a chain final drive” Not too many I would guess, butman just open a m/c mag, if you ever seen those fire breathing monster engines, take a look, it has a chain on it, not for old school looks or just to be different: - ) but for power, you really don’t think a belt can hold up with that much HP, do ya ? ever see one snap at the drag strip ? in fact one dosen't see too many belts at the track.

This is from memory but I am close, I remember reading sometime long ago, chains had very high in the 90’s say 97 or 98% efficiency rating, followed by the large harley belt less than the chain but close, 94 or 95% as for the shaft drives were the worst around 92 or 93% lets face it, out of the 3 the shaft just sucks for motorcycles, it’s ok for cars and trucks, ever drive one ? with miles on it ? notice the time-delay from the twist to the rear wheel ? yes that noticeable, the more miles the worst it gets, change the u-joint gets you back to new, but that’s not saying much.

cj

 

Yes I miss the days of the oil up the back of the t-shirt and the rain storm with no front fender, NOT !!!!!!!!!