Chain Adjustment

SheWolf wrote:

To this day I've never had a problem with chain adjustment. I just loosen the nuts and adjust the chain so I have about an inch and a bit between the swingarm and the chain, tighten them up and away I go. Never had any squealing or chain slap. Call it old skool but it worked for me.

Same here.....never had any issues.

Not until I got the WR that is.
Now it's just chain squeek after every instance when the chain gets wet.

Well I put on my 12T sprocket and it's great! The problem I noticed is that the chain is wearing flat on the inside. I have always had it tensioned by the method in the TSB mentioned above and only have 1200 miles on it. Is it normal for this kind of wear, or do I need to change my tension/lube? My riding is about 80% off road. Thanks!

You mean that the rounded portions of each link plate is getting ground down a bit?
If so, sounds normal enough.
This can also happen on the outside due to chain guide wear.

Right, the round parts are wearing flat. It just seemed unusual for the miles, but I am fairly new to chains. Most of my bikes have been belt drive, so I wanted to make sure I was treating the chain right. Ride more, Worry less!

mwakey wrote:

craigq wrote:

When I checked chain tension/slack after bringing the bike home new from the dealer, it was about 0.5" from the swingarm at various links on the chain when pressing up on the link at the distance specified in the TSB.

Seems like most folks have loose chains from the factory when the bike is new. At least that has been the story so far with the '08's. I would think they would be setting it according to the TSB at the factory for the newer '09 models, but maybe you just got a loose one. I don't have one of those tension gauges. I just take an educated guess at the proper force. Seems to be working good so far.

0.5" is in the range of 8-13mm.

Hate to say it, but I'll be going over there next time I need to adj. my chain. I'm way to lazy to print that little sheet out and it takes me forever to find the info on this site.

*i know, everyones sick of me bringing this up.

what do you guys think?


*yes that really is my bike

That is just perfect! :)

You need that much slack to account for the up and down of the rear suspension as you ride down the road.

Did you "back in" to something SM style?

Chief_Lee_Visceral wrote:

Did you "back in" to something SM style?

working my way up to that.








ps....chain/sprox only has 9k miles on it.

Man, what boots do you ride with and how many miles? That's a lot of frame rub!

Navajib wrote:

Man, what boots do you ride with and how many miles? That's a lot of frame rub!

decent weather i normally wear dainese torque outs.
piss weather i wear oxtar infinities.
dirty fun i wear forma dominators.

part of it is probably from my stich suit though

just gives it some character...

How did you get 9k on that. You never ride.

guess i ride the bike harder than i thought i do.

router.exe wrote:

guess i ride the bike harder than i thought i do.

OMG, how did you manage even to ride 100 yards???!?!!?

i let the clutch out and gave it some gas?

never really felt it skip....although maybe that's why it was so hoppy when down shifting to lock up the rear.

This is the updated chain tension adjustment bulletin from Yamaha. From what I was told, this procedure works with lowered bikes.

This is great - although the HF method seems easier to measure for those of us without specialized tools.

Also - is there a decent tutorial on the adjustment points? I think I get what's going on in there, but the User Manual is a bit vague for those of us who haven't attempted this sort of thing before and the Service manual I have (thanks!) references an adjustment procedure on "page 1-26" which, as far as I can tell, doesn't exist.

To be honest, I have never used this. I go by feel and really, have never had any problems with my chain. I'm still on the stock one and just over 8000, no side play and still really stiff.

This is really confusing. I downloaded the user manual from Yamaha UK website for 2008 WRX, showing diagram with 40 to 50mm play, & also the manual which was titled WR250R 2009, showing the diagram for the 8 to 13mm free play as per OP. So, is the revised chain adjustment for both X & R, or R only??? If its for both bikes, that means chains have been severely over-tentioned during servicing & also at the factory.

OK so the chain tension is set while the bike is leaned on the kickstand? Is that what I am reading from the update?

Just want to make sure. When I swapped my rear tire over to a Distanzia I had someone adjust it according to chain tension while sitting on the bike.

Yeah, that's what it states. ANd it affect BOTH the WRR and WRX.

WR25RX DG21E-0000002~0002803
WR25RXC DG21Y-0000006~0000457
WR25XX DG22E-0000005~0001733
WR25XXC DG22Y-0000005~0000220

Thanks for the update