Expected road mileage of an O-ring chain

My Chinese 650 is fitted with a Japanese RK 520SO 114 link O-Ring chain and a number of the links have seized, it has only done 7300 miles of only road mileage, my Enfield Bullet's Chain is a not an O-Ring and has done 6800 on roads, dirt tracks in all weathers and is still fine.

I thought O-Ring chains where supposed to be better and better value, I can purchase 4 Non O-Ring chains for the price of an RK O-Ring, could my chain have been faulty from new.

Have you maintained them in the same way? Same cleaning chemical and lubrication, at the same intervals? Or have you been better about cleaning the Enfield's chain immediately after riding in bad conditions whereas less thorough with the WK? Loadsa variables, I would think.

I only got about 10k out of the chain on my ER6, yet I've seen people getting at least 20k. I think the winter riding is a big factor in that. Hoping the tutoro improves this,

Have you maintained them in the same way? Same cleaning chemical and lubrication, at the same intervals? Or have you been better about cleaning the Enfield's chain immediately after riding in bad conditions whereas less thorough with the WK? Loadsa variables, I would think.

If anything the Enfield's chain has been abused, never specifically cleaned with chemicals in 14 Months, it gets washed and wiped with the bike, usually after a wash or ride in the wet and lubricated with Gear oil

The TR's O-Ring chain has been cleaned about every 1000km with WD40 Chain Cleaner and lubricated after a wash or a wet ride out with First 6 Months with WD40 Chain WAX the WD40 Chain Lube which is sticky, both have been ridden through the winter, Enfield all last winter and TR this Winter which is not yet over.

My GSX600 had a new chain (no sprockets) at 17,000.

It now done 31,000 and is due for new chain and sprockets.

I have used it more in bad weather during the last 10,000 than previous owners did in the first 17,000.

In the last 1000 its seen a lot of bad weather and a few links did get tight but freed up aftera good clean and lube.

My GSX600 had a new chain (no sprockets) at 17,000.

It now done 31,000 and is due for new chain and sprockets.

I have used it more in bad weather during the last 10,000 than previous owners did in the first 17,000.

In the last 1000 its seen a lot of bad weather and a few links did get tight but freed up aftera good clean and lube.

This is the sort of life I was expecting from an O-Ring chain, mine has at least 2 seized links where the pin is seized to the roller, the O-ring has obviously let water in, but not oil to re-lubricate it.

Isn't the point of the O-Ring that there's grease/lubricant inside the joints between the rings and it should never come out/let anything in? Over what sort of time period did you do the miles?

Isn't the point of the O-Ring that there's grease/lubricant inside the joints between the rings and it should never come out/let anything in? Over what sort of time period did you do the miles?

Precisely what I thought, Mileage has been done since April last year when the bike was bought brand new, although the bike is Chinese the chain is a Japanese RK chain £199.00 ( new ) as fitted to many Honda's, Suzuki's and Kawasaki's.

The chain has to have let water in or the links could not have seized, it probably happened on the Ride to The wall when it was in the rain all day long from 7:00AM to 10:00PM, it still of course should not let water in.

I only got about 10k out of the chain on my ER6, yet I've seen people getting at least 20k. I think the winter riding is a big factor in that. Hoping the tutoro improves this,

How many miles has the Kawasaki done, just curious.

Isn't the point of the O-Ring that there's grease/lubricant inside the joints between the rings and it should never come out/let anything in? Over what sort of time period did you do the miles?

 

Precisely what I thought, Mileage has been done since April last year when the bike was bought brand new, although the bike is Chinese the chain is a Japanese RK chain £199.00 ( new ) as fitted to many Honda's, Suzuki's and Kawasaki's.

The chain has to have let water in or the links could not have seized, it probably happened on the Ride to The wall when it was in the rain all day long from 7:00AM to 10:00PM, it still of course should not let water in.

The cause could be poor chain assembly then! If they don't press the outer plates far enough down then as you know the seal will be broken, but it's still going to be difficult to get some oil back inside. It's not going to be a case of the life of the lubricant in the chain going off in less than 12 months, which I thought might have been a cause - if the chain had been on a long time.

Isn't the point of the O-Ring that there's grease/lubricant inside the joints between the rings and it should never come out/let anything in? Over what sort of time period did you do the miles?

 

Precisely what I thought, Mileage has been done since April last year when the bike was bought brand new, although the bike is Chinese the chain is a Japanese RK chain £199.00 ( new ) as fitted to many Honda's, Suzuki's and Kawasaki's.

The chain has to have let water in or the links could not have seized, it probably happened on the Ride to The wall when it was in the rain all day long from 7:00AM to 10:00PM, it still of course should not let water in.

 

The cause could be poor chain assembly then! If they don't press the outer plates far enough down then as you know the seal will be broken, but it's still going to be difficult to get some oil back inside. It's not going to be a case of the life of the lubricant in the chain going off in less than 12 months, which I thought might have been a cause - if the chain had been on a long time.

I think I will have a go at claiming under warranty, claiming faulty manufacturing.

I used to get around 10 to 15k when I owned a chain bike

I never got to a point where I NEEDED to replace the chain but I replaced for preventative maintenance rather then wait for things to go tits up

I have had a chain suffer stiff links before and using a chain tool to loosen the link worked well

A mate of mine used to get around 25k out of his before he would change it but he ran a scottoiler and was anal about cleaning it! like after every ride

Precisely what I thought, Mileage has been done since April last year when the bike was bought brand new, although the bike is Chinese the chain is a Japanese RK chain £199.00 ( new ) as fitted to many Honda's, Suzuki's and Kawasaki's.

The chain has to have let water in or the links could not have seized, it probably happened on the Ride to The wall when it was in the rain all day long from 7:00AM to 10:00PM, it still of course should not let water in.

 

The cause could be poor chain assembly then! If they don't press the outer plates far enough down then as you know the seal will be broken, but it's still going to be difficult to get some oil back inside. It's not going to be a case of the life of the lubricant in the chain going off in less than 12 months, which I thought might have been a cause - if the chain had been on a long time.

 

I think I will have a go at claiming under warranty, claiming faulty manufacturing.

If you have a vernier, you can measure the gap on the inside of the seized plates and compare with the gap on a good link - if the bad link is bigger then it could well be the cause.

The cause could be poor chain assembly then! If they don't press the outer plates far enough down then as you know the seal will be broken, but it's still going to be difficult to get some oil back inside. It's not going to be a case of the life of the lubricant in the chain going off in less than 12 months, which I thought might have been a cause - if the chain had been on a long time.

 

I think I will have a go at claiming under warranty, claiming faulty manufacturing.

 

If you have a vernier, you can measure the gap on the inside of the seized plates and compare with the gap on a good link - if the bad link is bigger then it could well be the cause.

I have not got one but think I will get one, I did not think at my age I would be getting my hands dirty again, I thought I was past all that, oh the joys of motocycling

I used to get around 10 to 15k when I owned a chain bike

I never got to a point where I NEEDED to replace the chain but I replaced for preventative maintenance rather then wait for things to go tits up

I have had a chain suffer stiff links before and using a chain tool to loosen the link worked well

A mate of mine used to get around 25k out of his before he would change it but he ran a scottoiler and was anal about cleaning it! like after every ride

Makes me glad to have discovered Belt drive... 30,000 +/- and zero maintenance aside from the weekly damage check. I think it's a great shame that the orientals have essentially ignored this option for final drive... Especially in recent years.

I used to get around 10 to 15k when I owned a chain bike

I never got to a point where I NEEDED to replace the chain but I replaced for preventative maintenance rather then wait for things to go tits up

I have had a chain suffer stiff links before and using a chain tool to loosen the link worked well

A mate of mine used to get around 25k out of his before he would change it but he ran a scottoiler and was anal about cleaning it! like after every ride

 

Makes me glad to have discovered Belt drive... 30,000 +/- and zero maintenance aside from the weekly damage check. I think it's a great shame that the orientals have essentially ignored this option for final drive... Especially in recent years.

At 69 years old, I no longer justify spending that sort of money on a bike, hence the reason for a Chinese bike, which has surprised me with 7500 on the clock trouble free, except for the Japanese chain.

How many miles has the Kawasaki done, just curious.

About 17k at the moment. 2010 model. I also noted odd sprocket wear recently which turned out to be down to the sprocket carrier bearing having failed (it wasn't the rubber sealed type for some reason).

I used to get around 10 to 15k when I owned a chain bike

I never got to a point where I NEEDED to replace the chain but I replaced for preventative maintenance rather then wait for things to go tits up

I have had a chain suffer stiff links before and using a chain tool to loosen the link worked well

A mate of mine used to get around 25k out of his before he would change it but he ran a scottoiler and was anal about cleaning it! like after every ride

 

Makes me glad to have discovered Belt drive... 30,000 +/- and zero maintenance aside from the weekly damage check. I think it's a great shame that the orientals have essentially ignored this option for final drive... Especially in recent years.

Belt drive is a solution that has been tried on several bikes. Tends to be the smaller ones, but Harley have tried it on a few.

Downside is efficiency is not as good as chains. Failure s usually sudden and un-expected. Replacement often requires swing arm removal.

Advantages as you say are no lube required, bike stays nice and clean.

I've had 15k out of a chain on my old Fireblade but I was quite fastidious about lubing it.

I've had 15k out of a chain on my old Fireblade but I was quite fastidious about lubing it.

An O-Ring chain should not need a lot of lubing, the lub does not get behind the O-Rings, if like on my chains the links are seized then there has to be something wrong with the manufacture of the chain. i.e. water has got behind the o rings but the thickness of Oil stops it from getting behind the O-Rings.

Be that as it may, I still got 15k out of one. Besides I have a shaft drive on my current bike and loving the benefits.

The only chain failure I've ever had is when I used Wurth Dry Chain lube.

I had a Bandit 600 which, for the first two years, was a fair weather bike and at 7,000 miles the chain was in perfect nick.

Then I changed work locations and started commuting on it. As soon as they salted the roads the chain went orange and seized half of it's links within days.

Seems to me that Dry Lube offers next to no corrosion protection.

All of my chains before or since have been lubed with either engine oil or PJ1. And all of them have lasted 20,000+ miles quite easily.

The only chain failure I've ever had is when I used Wurth Dry Chain lube.

I had a Bandit 600 which, for the first two years, was a fair weather bike and at 7,000 miles the chain was in perfect nick.

Then I changed work locations and started commuting on it. As soon as they salted the roads the chain went orange and seized half of it's links within days.

Seems to me that Dry Lube offers next to no corrosion protection.

All of my chains before or since have been lubed with either engine oil or PJ1. And all of them have lasted 20,000+ miles quite easily.

Just as thought O-Ring chains crap for winter riding

The only chain failure I've ever had is when I used Wurth Dry Chain lube.

I had a Bandit 600 which, for the first two years, was a fair weather bike and at 7,000 miles the chain was in perfect nick.

Then I changed work locations and started commuting on it. As soon as they salted the roads the chain went orange and seized half of it's links within days.

Seems to me that Dry Lube offers next to no corrosion protection.

All of my chains before or since have been lubed with either engine oil or PJ1. And all of them have lasted 20,000+ miles quite easily.

 

Just as thought O-Ring chains crap for winter riding

Seems DJP is suggesting it is the type of lubrication being used not O ring chains specifically. I have ridden bike through winter an have always use a drip oiler, Scott or similar, and chains lasted ok.