What happens when you don’t
Steve Powell couldn’t believe a rider would risk it all for the sake of a £35 fix
‘If the chain had skipped off , it could’ve jammed the rear wheel’
Stevelin Motorcycles in Ramsey, near Peterborough has a typically diverse customer base from devoted pensioners with cherished 25-year-old ZXR750s, to learners operating on a tight budget. So when co-owner Steve Powell was rung up by a customer wanting to know if they would fit a chain he supplied for his 2017 CB125F, they were more than happy to go ahead… until they saw the bike.
“When we rolled the bike into the workshop and saw the state of the rear end, I said ‘mate, I can’t fit that chain on its own, not without sprockets as well.’ The chain was literally hanging on the floor and you could lift it off the rear sprocket because the teeth were so worn. “When I said, ‘That must ride really badly,’ he said ‘I haven’t really noticed’.”
The chain looked like a £3 special off ebay that wasn’t going to last long. So it was even more important that it was matched to new sprockets. But even when Steve explained that without matching sprockets the chain would wear rapidly, the owner was hard to convince. In the end he agreed to leave the bike with Steve to fit new sprockets, as the bike also needed a rear tyre, but still use the ‘online-special’ chain. Steve adds: “It wasn’t even as if the parts were expensive, a decent branded chain and sprocket kit for one of those bikes is about £35. But if that chain had finally skipped off the sprockets it could have jammed the rear wheel, or wrapped around the front sprocket and torn off the sprocket cover or punched a hole in the cases. If it had snapped at any sort of speed the end could lash around and take a chunk out of a rider’s leg. Especially this rider who was in trackies and trainers.
“If he had inspected his bike regularly, say once a week, then he would have picked up the wear rate. All he had to do was find the tight spot on the chain. You tension the chain there because if you used a looser point the chain would be like a bowstring at the tight spot and would wear really rapidly.”
NEXT WEEK WHO NEEDS A FRONT BRAKE... OR A REAR FOR THAT MATTER?