FOAK: Chain and Sprox

What's the current flavour of the month, brand-wise?

It's for the Blackbird - 23,600 miles have taken their toll.

Renthal.

From these guys:

Ta. I think I'll keep you as my personal shopping advisor.

well, read the rest of the thread, according to Lozzo (who, in
fairness, knows a lot more about bike stuff than I do) Renthal aren't
any good at all.

Bit late now - I've got a Tsubaki Gold chain arriving attached to
Renthal sprockets.

Tsubaki chain is good, you'll be ok with that. Tsubaki don't make
Renthal chain - Renthal make their own in Stockport. We use Renthal
sprockets on Danny's race ZX-10R, they've been fine. We use DID chain on
that bike and that's been fine too.

that's pretty much what I had on the TRX.

Can't fault their service: it arrived this morning.

that's what I liked about BCP - very quick and no nonsense.

It's very shiny.

The rear sprocket appears to be made out fresh air, it's so light.

it's all relative.

If it lasts 10,000 miles, it'll still be okay in 4 year's time, so I'm
not overly concerned.

it's not that you're in the habit of opening the throttle more than
30% or so, so you should be fine anyway.

Ooh, you little tinker. I'll have you know it was open about 34% on
the way home tonight! In the Rain! So ner.

I said I'd had a bad experience of them, YMMV.

it was the "won't buy another" comment that made me think you thought
poorly of them in general.

I won't buy another, but I never go out and buy the same things that
have failed on me prematurely in the past just to save a few quid.

I've had an EK chain snap on a ZZR1100 and the Afam on the Bandit is
like knicker elastic, I won't buy either of those again either. Both
those chains were on the bikes when I bought them and had Scottoilers
fitted too.

In all the years I've been fitting DID chain I've never had any problems
and they've lasted very well, and my experience of DID goes back many
years before I started working for the importers.

fair enough.

Renthal don't make chains, they were re-branding Tsubaki last time I bought
. . . which was 15k mls ago & still going strong thanks to the quality & the

I always fancied a Scottoiler but could never justify the cost. I can see

So buy a used one from ebay. They're a lot cheaper that way.

Well, yes. The question was more, are they worth the bother compared with a
can of chain lube and five minutes a week?

I'm still using one of the Scottoilers I bought used years ago and have
transferred from bike to bike[1][2], so in my case that's a yes. I don't
buy cans of expensive chain lube, I bought 5 litres of Husqvarna
chainsaw oil for 10 quid and 3 or 4 years later I'm still using it to

Well, I've got gallons of chainsaw oil in the shed, so that's half way
there. I'll give eBay a look. Cheers.

top my oilers up.

[1] Just been swopped onto the Daytona because it was nice and new
looking, so I'm looking for another for my Bandit.
[2] I left one of them on the Gixer when I sold it to Mike.

the advantage to a high-mileage rider and for long-distance touring, and I
like the principle of automatic and constant lubrication, but is there any
advantage to the low and medium mileage rider? Chain lube is fairly cheap,
and easy and quick to apply. Is there a kind of break-even point where a
Scottoiler becomes cost-effective? Is lubrication by Scottoiler inherently
superior to regular cleaning and lubing by hand? Would be interested in
anyone's input to this. (Almost bought one today, but managed to quell urge
to flex plastic on non-urgent items.)

Not true as others have said. The link bearings themselves are sealed,
yes, but the roller inner & outer surfaces still need lubrication.

The external oil will also prevent, or at least reduce, rust on the
rollers and sideplates.

Scottoiler.

Are there any other chains with Japanese-sounding names like Tsubaki?
Only I bought a (possibly) Tsubaki C+S kit that included Renthal front
sprocket, some other rear sprocket and a (possibly) Tsubaki chain.

Shortly after I fitted it I noticed a series of little "nibbles" round
the edge of the rear tyre, though the chain never touched the tyre
when rotating the rear wheel by hand. I checked wheel alignment,
several times, then wondered if I'd assembled spacers the wrong way
round, but this isn't possible. I also checked for bent & badly fitted
sprockets with a pointer, then the engine bolts and the swingarm
bearings: all OK.

Finally, after a couple of weeks of head scratching, I noticed that
the chain was snaking as it rotated: not enough to touch the tyre at
low speeds but it must've been whipping sideways at higher speeds. I
finally figured out that the chain was actually bowed sideways. Cue a
new chain and it's been fine ever since.

Tsubaki's UK HQ is quite close to where I live so I asked around if anyone
knows someone who knows and, you'd be very surprised how long the list is of
'famous' chain makers they supply.

I have a Renthal gold 530 sideplate on my keyring, complete with the
Renthal 'R' embossed into it. I would very much doubt that Tsubaki were
making Renthal chain and branding it as such. Renthal's big claim was
that they supplied British made chain, and they very proudly advertised
this fact. As far as I'm aware, Tsubaki chain is made in Japan.

From my experience of working for the importer of DID chain as a sales
rep, I know that all the chain makers I encountered are very protective
of their name, brand and image - and if it says RK on the box, then RK
made it not someone else.

I snapped a Renthal chain on my CB250RS and that was with a Scottoiler
fitted. I won't buy another.

This is ukrm - we are allowed to make decisions or form impressions of
goods & services based on sample dataset of one.

DID ZVM. No question. 38k+ miles on a lardy old FJ1100 (with Socttoiler
admittedly). Ridden not at all like a nun either FWIW.

Seconded. DID ZVM is the strongest chain on the market. Fitted them to
my last few bikes and never had to adjust the chain between tyre
changes.

Just hijack this thread. I need just a chain for my GSX600 but everyone
wants to sell me a chain and sprocket set.