Motorcycle Forum / General / Sportbikes / November 2007

You can ride much faster than 70 mph without fear of breaking a
chain.  Racers often exceed 200 mph.  The chain is going to be more
adversely affected by rapid changes in speed than constant speeds
anyway.

Keep your chain clean and lubed and you can expect 15k miles or more
before the internal bushings wear to the point of becoming a problem.

Don't worry your head about such things. I ride 80 mph on southern California
freeways because that's how fast traffic is going and breaking the chain is
the least of my worries.

The drive chain on a powerful sportbike has a tensile strength of about 10,
000 pounds. That's not 10,000 pounds per square inch, it's 10,000 pounds,
period.

A motorcycle engine cannot produce enough power to stretch the chain to test
the elasticity of the steel side plates, let alone exceed the elastic limits.

Even with perfect traction, a very powerful motorcycle engine can only
produce about 1350 pounds of tension on the chain with the transmission in
low gear.

http://chain-guide.com/basics/2-1-1-elastic-stretch-plastic-deformation-breakage.html

If the question is "do you drive more slowly than normal
highway speeds because of the chance of a broken
chain," then the answer is clearly no.  Yes, there is always
a chance of something going wrong, but it's sure not
limited to your chain breaking.  And IF you are reasonably
conscientious about maintenance and doing a periodic
inspection of the important bits, the chances of anything
going wrong while you're on the highway are greatly
minimized.  Not to zero, of course - so you still have to
ride prepared to deal with those sorts of things should they
happen - but certainly the risk is not high enough that you
need to limit your riding to puttering around town at 30 mph
because of it.

And no, I've never had a chain break on the freeway.  I
travel at the same speeds as everyone else.

Bob M.

Nope never had a chain break at all.
I do between 50-80 mph on the freeways depending on traffic density, and
conditions.
I won't do 80 at night or in populated areas, though I will do 80 all day on
the country backroads.

I lost a master link at 70 mph on a dirt bike while on a dirt road.  It
locked the rear wheel but I skidded safely to a stop.  It do get yer
attention....

I pretty much stay with the flow of traffic on the freeway, as going either
much faster or much slower is much more likely to cause an accident than
blowing a chain.

If you've got a modern chain and it's well maintained then it's unlikely to
let go on the freeway or anywhere else. (Yes, it could, but you could also
be hit by a stray meteorite.)

Never, and my highway average highway speeds usually have been higher
than those in the US. Not unusual for me to exceed 100mph plus conditions
permitting (this is in Germany btw, speeds are legal).

On a Sunday with an open road and little to no traffic I've averaged
130-140 non-stop for 30-45 minutes.

So no, I'd not be worried about the chain breaking. That's about the last
thing I'd worry about.

Now an engine randomly deciding to seize on you due to a few valves going
byebye...now that's a different story! =)

I've never broken a chain.  Period.  But I had a valve break at
(only) 70mph, and I've also had a front tire go out around 65 mph.

Terry

what bike, what year?

Totally irrelevant. My motorcycles do not have chains.

I've had a couple of chains break over the last 25 years (always due
to poor maintenance on my part),and it's never been a cause of drama
or concern.

As for speed - well, I don't know anyone who goes as slowly as 70.  In
the UK, minimum speed for *any* motorcycle seems to be about 90~95 on
the motorway.  Personally, I usually want to get the boring bit over
with as quickly as possible, so usually ride at 110~120.

I have a drive shaft. No worries, no noise.

The one and only time I was on a freeway I sat at between 60 and 70,
mind you it was a Hardly Ableson and took most of my journey to get up
to that speed.

Properly maintained and tensioned chains are one of the strongest parts of
any bike, (if not "the" strongest) but like anything else, if neglected can
cause some grief..

Do they break? Yeah, rarely, though again, mostly from neglect. Chain
killers are sand/dirt, lack of lubrication and improper tensioning, which
will cause stretching, not to mention wear and tear on sprockets. In over 40
years of riding and racing everything from R5's to full-on dragsters I've
broken 3 and had 1 come off. 2 of them at the tree, the other, unfortunately
(for me) near the traps. The one that just came off was due to the lack of a
keeper/lock ring at the master link..

Can they tear stuff up when exiting? You betcha', but not always, in fact,
most times they just snake down the road, though I have seen cases cracked,
swing arms scratched and even road rash, but those are fairly rare
occurrences, especially these days..

O ring chains were a quantum leap as far as maintenance and longevity, but
they still need lubrication, as well as cleaning from time to time. The old
stories about chain breaks and Harleys mostly date back to the years after
WWII when there were no new chains. Back then they boiled old chains in oil
to get a few more miles out of them and while modern chains resemble the old
stuff, they are harder, stronger and ten/hundred times less likely to
stretch out, or break, even on those big-inch torque monster's..

Bottom line on modern chains, take care of them periodically and worry about
something else...

I've avoided this supid, widely crossposted thread until now. Someone
mentions chains breaking back in the 70's. Back then they were ever
larger or 630 pitch instead of the current standard 530 & 525 chains.
I've ridden for literally 100s of miles at over 100 and the last thing
I was worried about was busting the chani!.

Bob Nixon.