Adjusting chain & changing rear bulb.

Adjusting chain.

After realising my chain had gotten very slack all of a sudden & I mean very, the paint work on the swing arm was grazed slightly. I knew I had no choice but to adjust it straight away.

Over time a bikes chain does stretch which creates slack in the hanging chain, to counter this manufacturers add a slot instead of just a hole to the swing arm where the wheel connects. They add adjustment bolts / nuts to the back of the swing arm to allow for the wheel to be adjusted or pulled back slightly to add tension to the chain. There is usually some sort of marker or increment system on each side so you know both sides of the wheel are set to the correct position.

First of all we need to get the wheel of the ground a touch. The bike has no center stand to raise the wheel so once again we need to use a jack. We cant lift from the ideal side of the bike because the exhaust is in the way and it is a pain to have to remove it all just for this quick job. So instead we come around from the other side and I choose to position the jack at the point just under the suspension / rear shock on the swing arm as anywhere further forward would just push the swing arm on it's travel. I place a small piece of wood on top of the jack point so it protects the swing arm from the jagged metal of the jack. 

 

Now, like mentioned before, we only need to lift the bike's rear wheel a touch off the ground. Anywhere between half a centimeter to 2cm is fine, while doing this remember not to neglect the weight of the bike is on the side stand and as such we are lifting the bike from the same side. So to stop it from toppling over gentle downward  pressure on the handle bar as you very slowly lift to adjust the downward pressure on the side stand other wise the bike will topple if you lift the side stand off the ground! The side stand should slowly slide forward along the ground re-adjusting it's angle. That's why lifting from the other side was preferred to begin with. But seeing as we only need it a touch off the ground it shouldn't be a problem.

Once this is done you can begin. by undoing the main wheel spindle /bolt nut, just slacken it off. Personally I loosened mine off while the wheel was on the ground, in case I needed to give it some to loosen it, knocking the bike over. Then I loosened it some more while in the air. Once that's done you can then loosen off the adjusting nuts at the back of each end of the swing arm. Not too much about a centimeter off for now.

If we look at the above picture we can see the notches or increments on the swing arm and the one on the gold coloured plate. It's the same either side and is what we use to make sure both sides of the wheel are in the same position, by watching these as you grab and pull the wheel back to retention the chain make sure both sides are at the same correct point. You may find the process easier if you just tighten the main nut a slight bit then it shouldn't move once you let go. Some prefer to put each side back exactly on a marker, in my case just by how much slack the chain had it wasn't possible and I had to put it back exactly between two markers (on either side of course).

Once this has been done you can tighten up the main bolt. You may have noticed that on this bike there isn't a castle nut / split pin config, just a nut. And there is nothing stopping the nut from coming off, if it's not TIGHT!

I actually wonder about adding an extra locking nut if I can find a thin one in the same thread type just for piece of mind. Like we did with the foot pegs. It would have to be thin as there is not much thread left on the end of the spindle once the bolt has gone on. A locking nut placed behind will stop the main one from working loose.

When this has been done you can tighten the adjusting nuts back up and align the plates. Once again there is no locking nut on these like other bikes but, if you wish there's plenty of room to add another on the thread.

That should be it to adjusting the chain. The Haynes manual on Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese motorcycles has more info on measuring the correct amount of chain slack when adjusting bikes but we will leave that up to you. How much the original chain is able to stretch by I'm not sure but, Lextek do some after market chains for the bike should you wish to change it. Personally you might find it better to have it changed the same time as a rear tyre at a garage, as the wheel has to come of anyway for that. And just adjust the current one while there is headroom left.

Changing rear bulb.

Ok, so after taking a look at the back of the bike the only real thing is a nut under the glove box (rear seat) which initially to me looked like it could remove the whole light unit, leaving you to put a new bulb in from behind. That's exactly what it did do and how you go about it. Just push the black tab the bolt was holding down then wiggle the lense with you other hand. Twist the bulb holder to remove the bulb. The L.E.D bulbs I purchased really weren't very bright at all and while ok for night use were not that visible in the day. I put the original bulb back in and will look to use a different type of L.E.D bulb in the near future. You may actually find it beneficial to buy an red tail light unit if like me you have the clear unit. The white bulbs & L.E.Ds are easier to come by in an emergency. The online breakers are selling them for about £10-£15 on eBay all the time. It's something I may consider regardless of the clear ones looking better. Of course everything go's back in the reverse order.

I might also make a note of some bikes toolkits included in the back seeing as it's seen here, mine was missing when I bought mine but you can pick up a few tools or add them to the existing kit no problem. You never know when a panel or something might work loose, when out on the road for example and you need to pull over and fix the issue or just need to adjust something minor without going out to the shed. Tie wraps are always a good addition, if something does ever work loose and you can't fix it till you get home or the screw has come out it's a good temporary solution. They can always help with the oddest of luggage problems too, to help lock stuff down. Mini pliers help keep space taken up to a minimum, as do the screw drivers that take the assorted bits, meaning you don't need to fill the back up with different screwdrivers. A few spanners of the type you mainly need, these drop forged spanners can be picked up in sets for £1 in £1 stores these days, as can most of the tools you need, so you don't need to spend a fortune to be ready while out on the road. For the sake of a quid here and there it's worth popping in and having a nose, the quality of the tools is actually a lot better than you would think these days. And you don't need to buy the best tools money can buy just to go in the back of the bike, you can keep those in your tool box at home. Lets face it the tools included in all the bikes are not usually the best quality anyway, not even up to market / £1 shop standard. Some cheap soft Chinese stuff just to do the job, where as an extra long large screw driver I picked up for a quid the other day was hardened and made in Europe, it's worth a look now and then, even if you want to keep your good tools in good condition, while using the cheap ones. You never know what you might find that's ideal & small for in the back of the bike!

 

The nut can be seen above.