Chain adjustment and the Haynes manual

[billy]

Thanks Darkenbad, Dilbert and Austin for your help and time!



Cheers

Billy

[djadams]

Just to be clear, both suggestions here are right. There's a difference between the "slack" as described by Honda and Haynes, and the clearance checked by a go/nogo stick.

The first refers to the distance you can move the lower chain run if you pull it down til it's tight and then push it up til it's tight, at roughly the half way point of the run - so 40mm or so from lowest position to highest position.

The gauge checks the clearance between the chain and swingarm when the chain is pulled tight downwards - so 70mm between chain and swingarm.

And again, without wanting to sound like a cracked record, the correct slack does not depend on rider weight/luggage load, it depends on suspension geometry. (The point being that the chain should always have some slack regardless of the position of the rear swing-arm, regardless of whether the bike sits in the tightest position the whole time (heavily laden) or only reaches it over large bumps (lightly laden) - at no point do you want to stress the wheel/gearbox bearings, either way).