| Author | Message | ||
     Spatten1 |
The pictures below will give you an indication of the current state of my bike.   I'm putting a chain drive on when I get the engine back together, and I have a question for BadWebbers. Do any of the Chain Gang do wheelies regularly? I want to ensure that it will not be too hard on the tranny if I wheelie a lot with a chain. My decision to keep or sell the bike after repairing it will be partially based on whether I can wheelie it without fear of mechanical problems, like the drive gear bearing issue that I have now. | ||
| Trojan |
If you fit a chain drive it will be harder ont hetransmission than the belt drive. Why? because there is no cush drive in the rear wheel and the chain will not absorb shocks as much as the belt will. Chain drive is great, and indispensible on a race bike, but ride and transmission is harsh compared to the belt. | ||
| Spatten1 |
Matt, Thank you for the input. I'm sure your race bikes run very hard. Have you had any tranny or bearing problems to speak of with the XB platform? Do you put a significant amount of time on the stock bearings before changing? Have you ever had any drive gear bearings fail? Thanks for any insight you have. | ||
| No_rice |
i wheelie mine constantly for almost 17,000 miles and no problems what so ever. although for now it is still the belt drive. | ||
| Vaneo1 |
all i know is that those pics look like a nightmare. | ||
| Brineusaf |
How much time do you have invested in the dis-assembly? | ||
| Trojan |
I'm sure your race bikes run very hard. Have you had any tranny or bearing problems to speak of with the XB platform? Do you put a significant amount of time on the stock bearings before changing? Have you ever had any drive gear bearings fail? We haven't had any bearing failures with our race bike using chain drive,so it hasn't been an issue to us so far. we have been using a belt drive primary all this season which has an inbuilt cush drive on the clutch hub, plus the shock absorbing qualities of the belt, Phil is also remarkably light on the clutch/gearbox and doesn't crash through the box or do clutchless full throttle changes. We did the whole season (except one race) on the stock clutch plates. Wheelies and stoppies are a definite no-no as they put undue strain on the whole bike, not just the drive chain. Personally I would keep the Buell for 'normal' riding and buy a MotoX bike to practice wheelies on. | ||
| Spatten1 |
Unfortunately my normal riding always includes a couple of wheelies. I have two young kids, so in my little free time I get as much fun in on the bike as possible. I've always been pretty hard on my bikes, but have never had any problems result from my riding style. I will not go to a belt primary. I've spent enough on belts, belt and pulley upgrades, chain upgrades, and now gaskets and labor for someone else to split and re-seal the cases. I can't spend any more money on this bike. | ||
| Fullpower |
I wheelie a bit with the chain drive XB, no problems. The sportster has a similar chain conversion and I have FLOGGED THE BLEEDING TAR OUT OF IT all manner of teenage hooliganism, 3 rd gear wheelies, looonng powerslides on gravel roads, some dragstrip runs, and even let my teenage son AND my younger brother ride it. the sportster has 9 plate barnett clutch with an extra heavy spring, a 3-5/8" bore and 4-5/16" stroke, and will turn 6800 rpm in fifth gear. I have melted down two sets of wiseco pistons, currently running a set of S&S forged flat-tops under (modified) S1 Lightning heads, cranking pressure is 205 PSI, and it really likes to run on methanol. the point here is that both XB and Sportster are running the Tsubaki Sigma X-ring chain with NO power transmission problems of any kind. 13000 miles on Buells current drive chain, and an ( estimated) 15,000 on the latest sportster chain. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Wheelies and stoppies are a definite no-no as they put undue strain on the whole bike, not just the drive chain. AMEN, brother! | ||
| Spatten1 |
"How much time do you have invested in the dis-assembly?" I took my time pulling the engine using the manual and it took me a good half day. I wasted at least an hour on the front isolator bolt. It was good and frozen so I had to hammer a 1" wrench into the top gap and scrape the crap out of the aluminum. Oh well. I haven't started engine disassembly yet. I'm going to pull the top end, primary, and cams myself, stripping everything outside of the cases. I'm paying a good local shop 3 hours to split the cases, press the bearings, and get everything sealed up well. It's worth that much money to me to have a higher degree of confidence that there will not be any leaks when I'm done. I'd pretty much lose my mind if I installed the engine and the cases started leaking or I screwed up something else inside. This HD thing is all new to me, and I don't want to learn any lessons the hard way at this stage in my life. | ||
| Spatten1 |
Fullpower: Does the sporster also lack the cush drive in the rear wheel? You are helping me get closer to keeping this thing and having the confidence to actually enjoy it again. | ||
| Garyl |
On the subject of cush drives, I found this when I did a search: "For those that have mentioned concerns about a lack of a crush drive making a chain harder on the Buell drive trains I submit this interesting tidbit: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/cgibin/discus/show .cgi?tpc=158664&post=753627#PO ST753627 So the "issue" is a non-issue | ||
| Spatten1 |
I have a hard time believing that the springs in the clutch gear/basket/housing have anywhere near the dampening effect of a rubber cush drive. When I pull the clutch off I'll take a look at how much travel they have. |
