Chain And Sprocket Change in Bike

How to know when your chain and sprocket needs a change or are damaged?

There are a few symptoms chain and sprocket wear out:

1. You would feel that your wheel is not moving as freely as it used to move earlier.
2. You should get an irritating sound, or a a "tak,tak" sound.
3. Down-shifting would be a bit difficult.
4. It wont feel refined to drive the bike

How to check for chain and sprocket is damaged and needs change:

1. First open the cap on the chain cover, if you have one, or just check a slack in the chain by manually moving the tyre. The slack should be even, but if, you see different tension levels/slack, then its time to change the chain and sprocket kit.
Basic question: Why to change chain and sprocket both?
Answer: The sprocket is the part where the chain moves upon. SO, wear out happens on both of them simultaneously. The reason for chain/sprocket damage is that, the chain becomes elongated and the grooves on the sprocket become unevenly deeper/shallow.

2. If you would still like to go deep into the analysis, then, open the chain cover and the front sprocket cover.(The smaller one). You would notice wear-out, but in really worse cases.

Now, you have known that you need a chain and sprocket change, so here are few pointers:

1. Chain and sprocket generally comes as a kit by OEM (Original equipment manufacturers). The kit involves three things: (a) Chain (b) Front sprocket(smaller one) (c) Rear sprocket(bigger one)

2. Generally, for bikes less than 250cc the kit comes at less than Rs.1800. For Hero Moto corp the parts price is a bit cheaper.(E.g. Karizma ZMR has a chain and sprocket kit for Rs.971 only)

Hope this helps...

-Gaurav

Bike Cornering Tips

Cornering, if the word itself gets you goose bumps then let me explain my personnel experiences to do it safely and in style. Biking has been a passion to many but to get involved with your bike and understand the balance is the foremost trick to get started with. One must feel the weight distribution of his/her bike when one accelerates and does braking.

As a common phenomenon, everyone must have felt that, when you accelerate, the weight shifts toward the back of the bike & while using brakes the front gets all the weight. So, on a turn if one is accelerating one must lean a bit forward to counter balance the rear pull. Once, you have superior grip on the front wheels, the confidence level, will rise exponentially even when you are braking a bit on the turns. The brake distribution should be more on the front wheel, as compared to the rear, but only slightly more. But it entirely is in tandem with the rear braking pressure. Either one if put alone, will end up you in trouble. Remember, skid of rear wheel is still recoverable but not the front, this is where you have to make the judgment.

Now, you must know the exact braking pressure and the way your bike reacts. Hard braking is always inefficient. On normal roads, if you’re on a straight line then braking does not have those drastic results, unlike when you are on the turns, where the bike tries to nullify the outward force. This is actually the same stuff we studied in physics. The centrifugal force is directed outwards, while the centre of gravity tries to balance it out when one leans, thus the correct speed is necessary. The wheel traction would be in the opposite of the centrifugal force.

 

One must learn that when you turn, the speed of the vehicle plays an important role. Please do not brake hard when you have approached a turn. Try to get a steady speed on turns.  You will have superior grip and even better chance to lean your bike when you sort of approach a turn with a smooth acceleration.

The most unfriendly situation is when, you have gained speed just before the tune and you are hard braking on the turn with your head faced in the straight line of the bike. So, when you approach a turn, first make sure there is no gravel in front of you, and then try to foresee just the turning road. This will give you a confidence to attack the road rather than just turning. The bike should start leaning while you turn, and soon when you approach out from a turn, you must try to speed up but evenly.

Last but not the least, get yourself geared up before leaning in and practise consciously. 

Cheers~