14/49 sprockets and 112 link chain

I'd mentioned ordering these a few weeks back, here they are:

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Seems to be plenty of clearance for the chain guard with no bending or cutting required. I went with 112 links in case I want to swap to a 13 T for the trails, I wasn't sure a 114 would allow for that. Don't think I'll have a problem with the T63 being too close to the mud flap. I'd read where some other folks cut the step out of the case saver, so I did the same; pretty quick and easy with the Dremel:

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This combo provides a 3.50 ratio, just a teeny, teeny deeper than the 13/45 I had been running. I've put 250 or so street miles on these, pleased as punch so far.

Sarah

Sarah I run a 13x45 and love it on the road but would probably go to a 47 if I start riding off road alot. So what to you is the advantage of your 14x49 ? That you can change to a lower gear by just changing you front sprocket without having to change the chain?

I'm hoping maybe the 14T will provide a little more leeway for the chain slider and swingarm. We'll see.

Sarah

Well that's the obvious advantage. Were you getting excessive wear with the 13x45 or are you just having fun being a gear head?

I had the problem sneak up within the first 7,000 miles, back when I was running factory sprockets.
I thought I was keeping a close eye on the chain but evidently not. Ate plumb thru the bottom/front of the slider and had just the beginnings of shiny marks on the swingarm. Nearly croaked when I saw it. Nearly croaked again when I had to spend $50 to replace the slider. Since then I've run 13/45 and have tried to keep a fairly tight 1.5 inches between the chain and the top of the swingarm, no problems for the last 12,000 miles or so and just minimal wear on the slider. But I figured if a 14T could provide a little extra insurance, all the better. And I hesitate to say this, because it could be my imagination, but I'm thinking this set-up feels smoother than the 13/45.

Sarah

We just got back from a 2 week ride out to Arizona, Utah and Colorado, 4,400 miles or so altogether. I'm tickled with this sptocket/chain combo all the way around. Swapped to my 13T for the Alpine Loop and it was just perfect in my opinion. I'm a big wuss offroad so the granny gearing was right on. I'm so very pleased with this bike; can't wait for the next trip.

Sarah

Also... ran in to jglow and his wife in Silverton; they're in the midst of the TAT. They've promised a ride report once they're home.

Wow Greer, big trip for this little bike. You going to do a trip write up. I'd love to hear more. Is that correct.. 1 1/2 " between chain and swingarm? 1/2" is spec so that is mucho tight!

I've got a Yamalink and my bike set up a lot like Rick's, so I try to follow his specs. Could be I'm reading things wrong, but about 1.5 inches between top of swingarm and bottom of chain is what I get. Does that seem right?

http://www.rickramsey.net/WR250Rmaintenance.htm

Sarah

Jeez Greer you have tons more experience with this bike then me, but what I use , what the book say's. and what most people seem to use is : 8-13mm between the top of the chain and the bottom of the swingarm when the motorcyle is on its side stand and you push the chain up at a point halfway between the chainroller and the forward chain guide bolt. ?????

greer wrote:

I've got a Yamalink and my bike set up a lot like Rick's, so I try to follow his specs. Could be I'm reading things wrong, but about 1.5 inches between top of swingarm and bottom of chain is what I get. Does that seem right?

http://www.rickramsey.net/WR250Rmaintenance.htm

Sarah

Yamaha's recommendation is half inch-ish (8mm -13mm) from BOTTOM of swing arm when pushing up on chain.

Not sure what that translates to regarding top of swing arm and chain at rest.

I'm not sure what , if any difference it makes having a yamalink on the bike. I have a Yamalink and my rear suspension adjustment screwed all the way down.

I'm thinking .5 on the bottom will give you 1.5 on top. Easier for me to measure at the top.

Sarah

I'll check mine and see what it is. Measuring on top would be easer!

greer wrote:

I'm thinking .5 on the bottom will give you 1.5 on top. Easier for me to measure at the top.

Sarah

+1 on this. I measure at the same place and it's much easier. I can get two of my little girly fingers in there which is perfect.

I just rode the alpine loop last week! american fork canyon right? it was epic. one of the best rides yet.

greer wrote:

We just got back from a 2 week ride out to Arizona, Utah and Colorado, 4,400 miles or so altogether. I'm tickled with this sptocket/chain combo all the way around. Swapped to my 13T for the Alpine Loop and it was just perfect in my opinion. I'm a big wuss offroad so the granny gearing was right on. I'm so very pleased with this bike; can't wait for the next trip.

Sarah

Also... ran in to jglow and his wife in Silverton; they're in the midst of the TAT. They've promised a ride report once they're home.

Colorado, crossing Engineer and Cinnamon Pass.

Sarah

greer wrote:

I've got a Yamalink and my bike set up a lot like Rick's, so I try to follow his specs. Could be I'm reading things wrong, but about 1.5 inches between top of swingarm and bottom of chain is what I get. Does that seem right?

http://www.rickramsey.net/WR250Rmaintenance.htm

Sarah:

I have the 14/49/112 chain setup you do, Yamalink, and shock clevise screwed all the way down to get me closer to the ground. Sag is about 3", stock Trailwings. I think our bikes must be quite close right now.

I messed around with Ramz method while checking my slider repairs and taking up the first stretch of the new chain tonight. I didn't have a lot of time and wasn't interested in unbolting shocks and messing around again after so recently having the bike's pants in pieces all over the garage. So I got the bike suspended up on a stand, checked for alignment by running a string from CS sprocket axis to rear axle axis. Swingarm pivot was a bit out of alignment, but close enough for guestimate work when I had absolutely nothing to go by. I gave myself about .6" +/- chain slack, measured with firm upward pressure at the back edge of the tire pressure sticker. I reasoned that firm pressure picked the chain up off the rear chain guide and should be reasonably repeatable. If I understand Ramz page, he went with about .25" +/- chain slack. So I would expect that, if anything, measurements should be shorter for me because I provided for more +/- chain slack. And my chain is two links longer...

So then I trued the chain run and bolted her all up, checking chain slack one last time before torquing down the rear axle nut. But... after the bike was off the lift and on the sidestand, that chain looks REALLY tight, even though my measurements seem to be somewhat similar to Ramz at the web page you referenced. Maybe I've just gotten used to seeing really loose chain using Yamaha's method with the stock sprockies and chain. Dunno.

With the bike on the sidestand, firm pressure measured from the top of my chain to the bottom of the swingarm in line with the rear of the tire pressure sticker measures about 30mm. I can't tell from Ramz web page exactly where he measured, whether there was pressure on the chain, etc, so his numbers (20mm) don't help much. That is in contrast to the Yamaha 8-13mm measurement with the smaller stock sprockets - which makes me fairly concerned I may have screwed up somewhere. I will be repeating the process tomorrow when I get a chance, or Sunday perhaps, as I have a wedding to attend tomorrow. I have the nagging feeling something ain't right.

With the bike still on the sidestand, from the top of the swingarm to the bottom of the chain, at the cutout in the chain slider just in front of the slider mounting bracket, measures about 37mm. That's pushing the chain slider inwards towards the tire so the rule can be placed on the swingarm itself, not on a worn chain slider. Ramz appears to have similar numbers, but his pics make it look like he measured from the top of the chain slider somewhere.

Given that both our sprockets are bigger than Ramz (but our chains are two links longer), I expect that the distance to our chains SHOULD be a bit more than his when chain slack is properly set.

So, with all the above said, until I figure out a way to compress the rear of the bike to get all three points in alignment (don't want to start unbolting rear shocks and linkages again) for measurement while adjusting, I am wondering if you would do me a small favour?

If you could measure the distance from the top of your chain to the bottom of the swingarm at the rearmost edge of the white tire pressure sticker, applying firm finger pressure, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm hoping your numbers will be close enough to mine that, despite the different sprocket sizes, I can be satisfied that my current chain adjustment is about right despite the apparent tightness. If I'm way out, then I better go back to using the Yamaha stock measurement method and measurements until I get something worked out.

Maybe everything looks too tight because I've been running with an overly slack chain for too long. Who knows...

BTW, my slider repairs using plasti-steel have held up very well. Using the Yamaha slack measurement method when I installed the new chain, I set chain slack up for 8mm to start with. After riding the Gray Pass a couple of times and down to Going To The Sun and back, the new chain had stretched a bit and was running fairly loose. But... very little wear on my chain slider repairs with about 500 miles on the new chain and sprockies and getting home from the trip with the chain fairly loose.

"If you could measure the distance from the top of your chain to the bottom of the swingarm at the rearmost edge of the white tire pressure sticker, applying firm finger pressure, I would greatly appreciate it."

Jager,

I'm sorry to be dense, but I'm not sure what you're asking.... I held the end of a ruler flush with the bottom of my swingarm, pushed up on my chain and measured 5.5 inches at the top of my chain. Did you mean top of swingarm to top of chain? If so, that measured 2.75 inches, with the ruler at the rear of the tire sticker and the slider shoved out of the way. Does this help at all? If not, we'll try to clarify and go at it again.

Sarah

greer wrote:

I'm sorry to be dense, but I'm not sure what you're asking.... I held the end of a ruler flush with the bottom of my swingarm, pushed up on my chain and measured 5.5 inches at the top of my chain. Did you mean top of swingarm to top of chain? If so, that measured 2.75 inches, with the ruler at the rear of the tire sticker and the slider shoved out of the way. Does this help at all? If not, we'll try to clarify and go at it again.

No, I was probably burbling a little with my questions . I had a PM with Ramz and he said he is going to redo that maintenance page because he doesn't think it is all that clear and the measurements may be misleading/confusing.

Let's try this: we're measuring the smallest gap distance between the chain and the swingarm, whether at the top or at the bottom. Just like the little closeup inset on the right shows in the Yammy diagram:



In that diagram, Yamaha says to take the measurement 165mm ahead of the leading bolt on the chain guide. Which is about the center of the tire pressure sticker. The problem with that (at least with our sprocket setups) is that the chain is touching the rear of the chain slider when you push up, rather than somewhere around the center of the furthest two points of contact. Meaning sliders worn to various degrees will significantly affect the measurement. So I used the rear of the tire pressure sticker to minimize that effect. Maybe should measure even further back to eliminate it as much as possible. On my bike, when applying upward pressure on the bottom chain, the halfway point between front contact on the swingarm slider and rear contact at the sprocket works out to be about 2" in front of the chain guide.

But for now, as per the Yammy diagram while measuring at the bottom, let's stick with using the back edge of the tire pressure sticker as the measurement point. Apply firm pressure with your index finger (don't try to recreate Yamaha's 30 lbs of force) to the chain. While holding that pressure, measure the gap between the bottom surface of the swingarm and the top edge of the chain, just like the diagram inset.. At the top, measure the gap between the top surface of the swingarm and the bottom edge of the chain at the rear swingarm slider mount, pushing the slider inwards towards the tire to get it out of the way so the rule can sit on top of the swingarm.

I am overdoing this measurement stuff here a bit. But with so many people using different sprocket setups, chain lengths, Yamalink/no Yamalink, etc, it would be nice to set up a baseline of measurements for chain slack that a rider knows give the proper amount of slack with various setups. I'm having too much fun right now riding after being a pedestrian for three weeks, and nice weather finally to boot, to go disconnecting the swingarm so I can properly block the rear end up and then set up chain slack with the CS sprocket, swingarm pivot, and rear axle all in alignment as I should do. So I'm kind of poaching off Scotty and you for the moment, because your bikes are very similar to my setup and you've both been running the same chain slack setup for quite a lot of miles without either excessive wear on the swingarm slider or screwing up bearings from too-tight chain.

And I'm sitting here wondering if maybe the best way to repetitively and consistently measure chain slack for baselines and comparisons would be with bikes up on a lift and the shock at full extension unweighted.

On the side stand, measured at the rear of the tire sticker:

One and one-eighth inch between the top of the chain and the bottom of the swingarm

Two and one-half inches between swingarm and bottom of chain, slider shoved out of the way


Sarah

greer wrote:

On the side stand, measured at the rear of the tire sticker:

One and one-eighth inch between the top of the chain and the bottom of the swingarm

I'm at an inch.

Quote :

Two and one-half inches between swingarm and bottom of chain, slider shoved out of the way

I'm at an inch and an eighth there. You must be putting upward pressure on the top as well, not just the bottom?

Anyways, bottom measurement tells me I'm pretty close. We'll see what Ramz comes up with when he reviews his setup.

Yes, I pushed up at the top, too. Glad you caught that, I wasn't thinking.

Sarah

Something I have noticed on all of these different "how to set chain to Yamaha specs" threads, is that the chain will not measure that same 1/2" once different than stock sprockets are used, or when the rear shock has been changed from origional in any way. I always go with setting it to what seems loose enough, then put my weight on the bike, then check it again. The chain is always tigher with weight on the bike!

My wife's WR has lowered suspension, so it is easy to see that the chain is at its tightest when CS, swingarm pivot, and rear axle are in alignment.

Aaron

Couldn't get the case saver on with my 14

You'll need to trim that rubber lip flush, scroll back up to see the picture.

Sarah