Who knew? Bikes can tell jokes.

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Mind_Reader7

Mind_Reader7

New Member
May 1, 2010
392
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Northam, Western Australia.
I'm riding home, and I'm just about home (can literally see my house), and my bike is like "Hey, wanna hear a joke?", I tell my bike that I'm busy riding, and can't concentrate on jokes right now. My bike starts telling the joke anyway, it says "Have you heard aobut the guys chain tensioner than exploded? It goes like this...BAM!!!".

My back wheel locks up, and I slide on the road a bit, almost falling off. Not sure what happened, the plastic wheel on the chain tensioner disappeared, and my engine was on a horrible angle. I took the chain off, and walked it a minute to my house. Nothing seems broken, none of the studs are damaged, I loosened them/straightened the engine up. I replaced the wheel on the tensioner with an old one I had laying around.

Bikes don't tell funny jokes.
 
K

Kayper

New Member
Aug 26, 2010
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Hamilton ON
Thats brutal dunn, atleast you werent far from home thats the WORST part of these little things breaking down(or blowing up). Dope to see your back up and running got pics of your ride?
 
Mind_Reader7

Mind_Reader7

New Member
May 1, 2010
392
1
0
Northam, Western Australia.
Here's the last pic I took.

Since then I've added a slant head, and changed the chain to a #41 (which was probably the issue, because it's about 2mm from having another link removed, so instead I gotta have the tensioner **** far up).

I'm currently painting an old bike frame, one with standard sized tubes. At the moment there isn't a cheap way to get a 2010 engine to Australia. I'm painting the frame white, and I figure with black wheels/black throttle/brakes/seat etc it should look really cool.
 

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Mind_Reader7

Mind_Reader7

New Member
May 1, 2010
392
1
0
Northam, Western Australia.
Well I was going to work at midnight, and I was about to ride my bike, and I noticed even though I had fixed the engine/chain, the engine had gone on a kinda big lean overnight. I decided to take my brothers non motorized bike to work, because I was running kinda late after checking my bike over.

I was wearing a red polo shirt/black pants for work, and had a large black coat over it. I started peddling, and after about 2 minutes of going down hill, I go flying past a cop car on the other side of the road. It turned it's lights on and I suddenly think "Oh god" and come to a stop. I wait for the cop to exit, and he asks what I'm doing. I explain I'm on my way to work, and he questions why I'm wearing all black, riding aroudn at midnight, on a bike with no lights.

I tell him that my bike broke earlier that day, and that I'm riding my brother bike (this sounds like the worst series of lies ever). I take my jacket off and show him my work shirt, and give him my address/name etc. He then makes some seriously smart ass remarks, and then they leave. I managed to escape a $100 fine, lucky.

For now I have put my old 415 chain back on. The 41 chain is just a tiny bit too long, abut just a tiny bit to short to take another link out.
 
WildAlaskan

WildAlaskan

New Member
Sep 30, 2010
578
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alaska
although in some cases simply fitting a chain to buike works there are other times when it does not work i have not had any problems from my home made tensionmer and thikn it is great while not having a tensioner is great it doesnt work on all bikes
 
BarelyAWake

BarelyAWake

New Member
Jul 21, 2009
7,194
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Maine
Slowrollers said:
I think the chain tensioner is the joke.....

Id NEVER use one on my bike.......Cut the chain to fit.....Theres a idea....
Click to expand...
...and here's quite a few others lol: http://motorbicycling.com/f11/chain-tensioner-suggestions-11815.html

Aside from the commonality of bikes w/o horizontal dropouts (making finer chain length adjustment impossible) there are some that in fact require the use of a tensioner/idler wheel to reroute the chain up and over the chainstay for clearance.

While the kit-supplied tensioners are known to be junk & somewhat hazardous if not installed/modified to suit, after runnin' w/o a tensioner I've learned quite well that as is true with so many things, it's a compromise, a trade off for other problems. Chain wear is an unavoidable fact and as such some way of compensating for it is needful - if you've a comparatively low power machine, don't ride as a daily driver/commuter, have horizontal dropouts & plenty of chainstay clearance then by all means, not having any tension adjustment other than moving the rear axle is a great alternative...

Yet after over four thousand miles racked up this summer alone w/o a tensioner & any number of replacement chains (wear), playing with 1/2 links and the axle shift game I can assure you that a proper tensioning system may be far more of a blessing than a curse. If you've low mileage riding habits even the engine shim technique may be a viable alternative... but as a high miler I can't see that as anything other than a headache.

It's all about your specific application - there's no "universal" solution to this specific problem as it's as varied as the bikes and those whom would build them... I do know one thing and that's with my upcoming build & riding habits I'll be runnin' a tensioner and lovin' it lol ;)
 
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Mind_Reader7

Mind_Reader7

New Member
May 1, 2010
392
1
0
Northam, Western Australia.
I used a chain tensioner on my first bike for about a year, and had no problems, except I had to adjust it from time to time, because the chain stretches.

The stock chain tensioner is fine if you only need to take a tiny bit of slack off the chain, but the further back you need to move it, the worse.
 
WildAlaskan

WildAlaskan

New Member
Sep 30, 2010
578
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0
alaska
dont do any curb hops with a stock tensioner i did with mine and it bent in i moved it back into place pushed my bike to make sure the chain wouldnt bind and it was fine as soon as i tried to start it it bent again couldnt handle the stress of starting
 
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