Hitchcocks Forum

I bet this comes up daily.... My manual says to adjust the chain to 25-30mm slackness, but doesn’t mention if this is on or off the stand, or whether its total travel from top to bottom slack or just upwards slack. Can any of you legends give me the definitive procedure and measurements and clear this up once and for all as I’m bored of watching YouTube contradictions!

2016, Classic 500 EFI, Indian model, no ABS.

If it ain’t broke, fix it till it is.

Sula wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 12, 2020 10:53 am

I bet this comes up daily.... My manual says to adjust the chain to 25-30mm slackness, but doesn’t mention if this is on or off the stand, or whether its total travel from top to bottom slack or just upwards slack. Can any of you legends give me the definitive procedure and measurements and clear this up once and for all as I’m bored of watching YouTube contradictions!

2016, Classic 500 EFI, Indian model, no ABS.

If it ain’t broke, fix it till it is.

My personal opinion no matter what chain drive motorcycle always check the slack off of the stand with someone sat on the bike a similar weight to you, and check the slack in several places in one rotation.
Few motor cycles have the gear box sprocket in line with the centre line of the pivot point of the swinging arm.

Unless your bike is different to most others, 25-30mm is not much slack at all. Bearing in mind that the chain will tighten as the suspension compresses, I’d say that’s the weight on wheels figure.

RE recomend that is checked on the centre stand.
25mm is too tight for my liking though.
Set it at 25mm on the centre stand then take the bike off the stand and lean over the bike putting all your weight on the back of the bike to compress the suspension as much as you can, see if the chain is to tight for your liking.
I set mine at 30mm which seems to be just right when seated on the bike.

just my penny's worth...........
I have a 2019 C5, having only ridden shafty's for the past 28 years when I bought it I also asked about the chain tension because I wasn't sure what might have changed since I last owned a chain drive!!
I was given good advice.
I thought that the 25-30mm figures were a bit tight as the C5 chain tightens quite a bit as the rear is loaded, because I ride the majority of the time with a pillion I have set mine with a little slack when both of us are on the bike, on the stand you can always use a ratchet strap to compress the rear and then set the chain tension, I would rather it be a a bit (but not too much) slack than running tight.

Motorcycle manufactrurers go to a lot of trouble to get the swing arm and drive sprocket in alignment and as close as possible. The c5 is pretty close and yet 30 mm is taken when loaded. I find my 100 kg addition reduces the 30mm to 5. I wont be altering that.

Thank you everyone for your extremely helpful replies. All clear now!