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Drive Shaft

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
I'm still waiting for a belt-driven heathen to chime in and tell us we're all wrong....
 
Chain or shaft is the same s#!t.

Most definitely not! I've had both chain (11 years) and shaft (23 years), and I can tell you the difference in maintenance, timewise and effortwise, is totally different.

Shaftie Nick
 
So what if it takes me an extra minute to lube my chain before I go out. I guarantee you I'll pass you shafties on the road so what difference does it make? :wink:

You like your shafts, I like my chains. To each his own.
 
Maybe you decrepid ol farts just can't get down on your knees anymore! Could that really be what this arguement is about?? :lol:

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 8:39 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what if it takes me an extra minute to lube my chain before I go out. I guarantee you I'll pass you shafties on the road so what difference does it make?

You like your shafts, I like my chains. To each his own.
Click to expand...

Ha Ha! What he said!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
You cannot say which one is better, its all a matter of opinion. I own a shaft drive, and it definitaly is relatively carefree, compared to a chain...BUT, for a sporty car, i would rather have a manual transmission, than an automatic. manual is more of a hassle, but for me drive a manual it just feels sportier. for many its the other way.

Im sure for a few people like me, we would never feel the difference or mind the difference between the two. I would rather not get down on my knees and fiddle with a chain, hell i dont even grease my own splines, thats how lazy i am...

so for me the answer is obviously shaft.
 
Hate to say it bro, but you have to lube that chain more than the one time you take the tire off...and you can grease the shaft splines in about 5 minutes. heating the chain, etc takes longer....same topic still...
Click to expand...


Really, that's right. I wouldn't know how often I need to lube the chain EVEN THOUGH I OWN ONE!!! Once a year pal, and it looks like new from spring to fall. I average 4000 miles a year and don't have a speck of rust on the puppy. I do not however ride in the winter. I'll leave that to the maniacs. Unless you have ever maintained a chainlike me (the correct way) then you don't really know, do you?

Cleaning the chain does take some time, but heating it does not. The real process is as follows:

1. When tire is off remove chain
2. Soak and clean the chain (I use kerosene)
3. Put the clean and dry unit back on the bike
4. Ride up street about 1/2 mile (chain will be hot)
5. Slather on gear lube
6. Let sit for a couple of hours

My chain looks like it is fresh out of the wrapper and I touch it once a year.

This really is a stupid discussion that I am perpetuating. I covet just about every bike out there, from Vespa to Valkarie. F#@k if I care weather it has a chain or shaft. F#@k this, I'm going to get a sandwich...
 
Maybe you decrepid ol farts just can't get down on your knees anymore! Could that really be what this arguement is about??

No, we're not decrepid, but decrepit. That's what the argument is about!

And yes, the hell with getting down on hands and knees. Definitely too old for that, and hopefully, Michael, some day you'll get too old for that too!
:wink:

Nick
(just sittin' a spell...)
 
4,000 miles a year. No wonder you don't need a shaft. On a shaftie you'd probably ride a lot more!

I love this argument!
:wink:
Nick
 
Jethro said:
Really, that's right. I wouldn't know how often I need to lube the chain EVEN THOUGH I OWN ONE!!! Once a year pal, and it looks like new from spring to fall. I average 4000 miles a year and don't have a speck of rust on the puppy. I do not however ride in the winter. I'll leave that to the maniacs. Unless you have ever maintained a chainlike me (the correct way) then you don't really know, do you?

Cleaning the chain does take some time, but heating it does not. The real process is as follows:

1. When tire is off remove chain
2. Soak and clean the chain (I use kerosene)
3. Put the clean and dry unit back on the bike
4. Ride up street about 1/2 mile (chain will be hot)
5. Slather on gear lube
6. Let sit for a couple of hours

My chain looks like it is fresh out of the wrapper and I touch it once a year.

This really is a stupid discussion that I am perpetuating. I covet just about every bike out there, from Vespa to Valkarie. F#@k if I care weather it has a chain or shaft. F#@k this, I'm going to get a sandwich...
Click to expand...

Geez...PAL.... I guess the 3 other chain driven bikes I have owned don't count. Especially since I replaced all three's chains/sprockets. Yea, that chain may look all Nice and shiny for it's once a year treatment, and may work for you just fine, I believe that when you lube a chain, be it Regular or O-Ring, you should lube it more than once a year, as there is SPROCKET wear to consider also. last I remember, a sprocket with lube on it wears slower than one without. But then, I may be wrong, as I "obviously don't really know, do I"....Now for the time thing....seems the 2 hours you wait is LONGER than the 5 minutes it take me, and again, last I remember, 2 hours longer = 2 hours LESS riding. Now before you choke on that sandwich you were going to get by getting so pissed off at me that the next poster said "lighten Up", remember the last item you posted "F#@k if I care weather it has a chain or a shaft"...If you don't care, why post? And Sorry if I offend any other posters on this forum....It is just a debate, a personal opinion, and not meant to make anyone 'choke' over it :evil:
 
Jethro said:
[Cleaning the chain does take some time, but heating it does not. The real process is as follows:

1. When tire is off remove chain
2. Soak and clean the chain (I use kerosene)
3. Put the clean and dry unit back on the bike

4. Ride up street about 1/2 mile (chain will be hot)

5. Slather on gear lube
6. Let sit for a couple of hours


quote]

Let's see....the chain cleaned in kerosene, allowed to dry completely, then re-installed on the bike. There is now no trace of any kind of lubricant.

We drive the bike anyway.

Then we note the chain gets hot.

I wonder if the chain gets hot because of the intense friction that comes from running with no lubricant, and if that intense friction does more damage to the chain AND the sprockets in a few minutes than a normally lubricated chain and sprocket set would acquire in 1000 or more miles?

Having once been distantly acquainted with a chain-driven bike, such things are a puzzle for me.
Click to expand...
 
Michael Falke said:
Maybe you decrepid ol farts just can't get down on your knees anymore! Could that really be what this arguement is about?? :lol:
Click to expand...

I resemble that remark :D

Much better to have a bike than none - chain or shaft. For me - even better with a shaft. To each his own. If it wasn't this way, how else would they sell Harleys?
 
thats because a Harley doesn't need a chain (or a shaft, for that matter) to break down!!!! :twisted:
 
harley's don't break down, the're always parked in peoples lounge rooms getting looked at!!!!! :lol: :lol:
 
propflux01 said:
thats because a Harley doesn't need a chain (or a shaft, for that matter) to break down!!!! :twisted:
Click to expand...

Off topic. When I was a TV technician in about 1977 on a house call, the man of the house had a CB750 engine completely in pieces on the lounge room floor. All carefully cleaned and laid out for reassembly. Very proud he was and keen to talk to me (then a proud GT750 owner) about his baby.

Don't remember what the lady of the house thought.
 
Even though I've made the odd disparaging remark to tease Nick because he bites so well, and although I've never owned a GS shaftie, everything I've read said that they were excellent bikes. I've had 3 BMW's (R69S, K100RT and R100RS that I had for 10 years and only sold this year) and they were all fine, particularly the K100RT, I did a 700 mile day on it once, and it was magnificent, don't know why I sold it to buy the R100RS, it wasn't nearly as nice.

However because I like to "play" with some of my bikes, I do prefer chain driven bikes, purely because I don't like to be restricted to factory gearing, wheels and tire combinations. It's relatively easy to fit later GSXR wheels and tires to old GS chainies, and just as easy to gear them up or down, there are hundreds of different final drive combo's available for canyon racing to highway cruising, and of course by changing your wheels for later items, you can also fit superior modern brakes with 2,4 or even 6 piston calipers and big discs as well.

Sadly the same can't be said for shafties. As good as they are, unless you've got an engineering degree and real deep pockets, you are pretty much restricted to stick with the original (good, but dated) final drive, wheel/tire/brake combinations. I know that not much goes wrong with shafties, but when something does it's going to be expensive, and no matter how much grease you put on your drive shaft splines, they're gonna wear out eventually, and then what? There's not much left on the shelves at your local suzy dealer now, and in a few years time, there'll be nothing.

If I could find a good low mileage shaftie I'd be tempted to buy it just to experience how good these things are for touring, but for mine, I'll stick with chain bikes because I know that no matter how much Suzuki would like us all to park our old dinosaurs and buy one of their new "Plastic Rockets" or "Harley Clones" I can continue to keep my chain bike on the road with later model or after market parts pretty much for as long as I need to.

If the only drawback about owning a chain bike is the requirement to occasionally lube the chain, then I really don't think I've got much to worry about. :twisted:
 
That's not the only drawback of owning a chain, Terry. The main drawback for owning a chain is that it's a chain! Period. :wink:

And the reason I "bite so well" is that I will respond to every inaccurate statement made by anyone about the shaft, whether kidding or not. I will continue to do that, partly in fun, and partly because misconceptions must be addressed.

I do understand your point of view, and the point about the eventual demise of the GS shaft due to obsolescence is a valid one. True, no matter how many times the splines are lubed, they'll eventually wear out.

That's why I alternate two rear wheels. One is the stock 16-incher, and the other is a 17-incher off one of my former 850's, a 79 model. Each wheel has its driven splines in it. The splines are off a 79 GS850 and an 80 GS850. The early splines are made of a different metal, much harder, and wear quite well. There's no appreciable wear on either set of splines, even after all those years and miles. On the newer GS850's, though, the splines are made of softer metal, and will wear out, regardless of amount or frequency of grease.

So, I calculate that at that rate of wear, I will be dead or no longer riding motorcycles by the time these splines do wear out. That's the advantage of being old...

It's good to continue exchanging ideas in this regard.

Nick
 
I don't really understand why Suzuki did not continue with a shaft version of a standard bike, based on the GSXR motor. The GSX1400 platform would make a killer allround bike/sports tourer for the real world.

I would have thought that splines could be engineered and fitted..just about everything can be done these days. But I suppose most bikes are junked way before the shaft wears out.
 
The debate

The debate

Let's see, GS850 shaft, KZ900 chain, GT750 chain, 250 chain. Yup, they all are fun to ride, enough said. Bob
 
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