The friendly "dumb" bike questions thread

[Taglioni]

A chain going "up and down" is different from a chain that is worn out
Take hold of a section of the chain halfway round the rear sprocket and try to pull the chain out away from the sprocket, ie out of the teeth
If it does more than a mm or two, it's worn out

[Cbull]

Sorry, I should have worded it better. The chain was de-greased, scrubbed, wiped clean and re-greased by myself. In fact, the guy at the garage mentioned that he could see the chain has been well maintained.

Taglioni Yes the chain does have a little slack around the back. It must be worn then. 3k miles is a terrible amount of mileage to get out of a chain. The chain itself is not a particularly thin chain as 125 chains generally are (I think). He's also done a lot of that mileage with me. Yeah he accelerates as fast as he can generally but it is only a 125.

[TommyBuoy]

I must have missed something here - has the chain not just stretched a bit and needs adjusting?

Also, no there would be no warranty on the chain - its effectively a consumable and wears according to use and maintenance.

Edited by TommyBuoy on Thursday 21st June 12:32

[Cbull]

That's the thing Tommy, that's why I took it to a garage to check out. In my eyes, if it had just stretched the chain would just be loose and would need to be re-adjusted BUT when we rotate the back wheel the chain under the swing arm raises and lowers as if the sprocket is oval shaped. I noticed it when I was wiping the chain clean and it nearly squashed/trapped my fingers.

Agreed with the consumable part, I'm just confused as to why a chain on a new bike would only last 3k miles.

On a note of adjusting the chain. The manual says 5-7mm slack, so when we adjusted it a short while ago we just kinda just done by eye. Speaking to KTM about that he seemed to not believe me, when he looked he apologised and admitted he had no idea why it says 5-7mm and couldn't explain why.

[pozi]

KTM Duke is made in India with cheapish consumables, I expect if you put on a new branded chain in it will last far longer.

Edit to add, if the chain is visibly moving up and down it is possibly too tight, always adjust the slack at the tightest point and check it again with someone sitting on the bike. Also check your manual again, I think it says the chain should be pressed towards the swing arm and the gap between swing arm and chain is 5-7mm, not the chain slack itself is 5-7mm.

Edited by pozi on Thursday 21st June 14:18

[TwoStrokeNut]

There are some shockingly low quality parts fitted to the smaller road KTMs.

Just fit a new decent chain and be done with it.

[Cbull]

New chain it is

Yeah will double check that Pozi, sounds more reasonable.

[Biker 1]

Parking one's pride & joy at work in direct sunlight with zero shade: is this OK for some 8 or 9 hours? The petrol tank is very hot, as is the seat, tyres, & every black painted surface.
I assume modern paints can cope with UV, but are bikes more sensitive than cars??

[independentLee]

Cbull said:

Sorry, I should have worded it better. The chain was de-greased, scrubbed, wiped clean and re-greased by myself. In fact, the guy at the garage mentioned that he could see the chain has been well maintained.

Taglioni Yes the chain does have a little slack around the back. It must be worn then. 3k miles is a terrible amount of mileage to get out of a chain. The chain itself is not a particularly thin chain as 125 chains generally are (I think). He's also done a lot of that mileage with me. Yeah he accelerates as fast as he can generally but it is only a 125.

Chains are a cheap and consumable item? It's not the miles on the chain, since if misaligned, it will wear out and form tight links very quickly, as well as destroying the sprockets, and potentially, the counter shaft seal, too.

£28 for a (cheap) chain and the same again for front & rear sprocket set. If you want a decent chain, buy an RK chain. Well worth the extra cost - made in Japan.

[Cbull]

Had a closer look at the sprockets yesterday. Front sprocket appears to be a little more deformed than the rear. He paid extra for a KTM Orange rear sprocket and we still have the original, will be keeping it on for a little longer.

Will probably go for this chain, I got the 530 version and it seems to be good enough quality. Not particularly cheap though.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DID-X-Ring-Chain-520-11...

Will replace the front sprocket with a Renthal brand for about £12.

Ta

[Danm1les]

Hi,

A friend of mine has jsut purchased a 2009 R1, and there are a couple of bolts on the underside of the exhaust that need to be undone. Unfortunately they are have been exposed to the road forever and are part of the exhaust so are well and truely stuck.

Any pointers in trying to get them undone? Have tried socking them in WD40 penetrating fluid etc. but with no joy as of yet.

Thanks,

Dan

[crofty1984]

Danm1les said:

Hi,

A friend of mine has jsut purchased a 2009 R1, and there are a couple of bolts on the underside of the exhaust that need to be undone. Unfortunately they are have been exposed to the road forever and are part of the exhaust so are well and truely stuck.

Any pointers in trying to get them undone? Have tried socking them in WD40 penetrating fluid etc. but with no joy as of yet.

Thanks,

Dan

Heat.
Big eff off breaker bar.
Also hit them with a hammer (no, really) the shock might do them some good and help penetrating oil to get in.
Are the bolt heads in good condition? If not you can get special sockets with grippy rollers in.

[Danm1les]

crofty1984 said:

Heat.
Big eff off breaker bar.
Also hit them with a hammer (no, really) the shock might do them some good and help penetrating oil to get in.
Are the bolt heads in good condition? If not you can get special sockets with grippy rollers in.

The heads are OK but they are allen keys and not nuts so having to be a little careful with forces involved which is the pig. Do you think running the bike for a while so the exhaust gets nice and hot will help?

[MajorMajor76]

Hi All. I am a finance noob and have just bought a new DL1000 on a PCP deal. Have bought comp insurance which replaces for new in the first six months but do I need GAP insurance for the remaining 2.5 years?

[Jazoli]

Yes GAP would be a good idea as the finance owing will be more than the bike is worth I use www.insurethegap.com and their Combined Total Loss Gap policy cost me £89 for 3 years on a bike of similar value to yours.

[Prof Prolapse]

Danm1les said:

crofty1984 said:

Heat.
Big eff off breaker bar.
Also hit them with a hammer (no, really) the shock might do them some good and help penetrating oil to get in.
Are the bolt heads in good condition? If not you can get special sockets with grippy rollers in.

The heads are OK but they are allen keys and not nuts so having to be a little careful with forces involved which is the pig. Do you think running the bike for a while so the exhaust gets nice and hot will help?

Obviously ensure you're using a ratchet with the appropriately sized allen head attachment rather than an actual allen "bar" type tool. Any stubborn allen head will get deformed very quickly otherwise. One of the engineers can probably explain better than me as to why. If it's too late and malformed, you can try hammering in a similarly sized "torx" bit type socket. Again though, use it on a ratchet.

In my experience penetrating oil doesn't really help until the bolt is actually moving, but I always spray some.

I'm not sure whether heat will help on a bolt as presumably it will expand more? I tend to reserve that more for large nuts on car suspension bolts, but I'd say it's worth pointing out that expansion is proportional to heat, and blowtorches burn many hundreds of degrees hotter than any exhaust. Especially if it's further down from the manifold.

"Roller type stud extractors", will indeed remove anything that fits into them but the problem is usually fitting it. A 10mm length or so of extruding allen bolt, will only have a couple of mm for the rollers to grip even if you have the correct width extractor. They're more for things like manifold bolts.

"Irwin" type stud extractors work very well, but are generally for larger nuts, and need hammered into place. So movement of the exhaust and access to swing can be issues. Again you need the right size too.

"Screw" type extractors, work just about anywhere you can get your drill. Hardest part is drilling into a hard bolt, and making sure you drill a very straight hole for the extractor, otherwise the screw won't be able to turn effectively when you attempt to rotate the bolt counterclockwise. You'll need a fairly decent drill and drill bits in my experience.

Edited by Prof Prolapse on Tuesday 3rd July 16:06

[Rsdop]

I’ve got a question about tyres and cornering. I did my first track day at the weekend and absolutely loved it. Felt like I was getting a decent lean on but looking at my tyres there’s still 10mm or so at each side that I haven’t used. Thing is I found my toes were scraping on the floor so didn’t feel I could get over any more. Is this because of my clown sized feet, wrong position on the bike or something else? Cheers.

[RizzoTheRat]

Prof Prolapse said:

I'm not sure whether heat will help on a bolt as presumably it will expand more? I tend to reserve that more for large nuts on car suspension bolts, but I'd say it's worth pointing out that expansion is proportional to heat, and blowtorches burn many hundreds of degrees hotter than any exhaust. Especially if it's further down from the manifold.

The trick with heat is to try and get enough heat in to the nut to cause it to expand without getting as much heat in to the stud so it doesn't expand as much, hence a blowtorch from the outside, something with a fairly fine flame ought to work better than a big flame that heats everything.

I've had reasonable success in the past by giving a squirt of penetrating oil (plus gas, shock unlock, etc rather than WD40 or GT85) every day for a week or so before attempting to turn such nuts, and once you do get it moving turn it back and forth and squirt more lube in there.

Another approach if you've got access is to use a dremmel or similar to cut through the side of the nut and chisel it off.

[pessimal]

been meaning to ask this.

how can i "wash" the inside of my gloves?

the outsides are find, but the inside has got sweaty, greasy and generally horrible.

does anyone have any hints on how to clean or wash or do something to make the inside a more pleasant place for my hands

thanks!

[CaptainSlow]

pessimal said:

been meaning to ask this.

how can i "wash" the inside of my gloves?

the outsides are find, but the inside has got sweaty, greasy and generally horrible.

does anyone have any hints on how to clean or wash or do something to make the inside a more pleasant place for my hands

thanks!

Turn them inside out. Then the outsides are the insides and the insides are the outsides.