What happens after adusting the tension of chain?

kaiQ SG

I went for servicing to adjust the chain tension, cause it's quite slack. The guy just move the back wheel back (those procedures that start with taking out the split pin one lor). After finish, while riding home, got funny noise coming from the chain.

If the wheel move, the sound- something like chain friction or wheel friction- comes from behind. (yee~yee~ "sound") Is it normal? The power also seems to go up, even in idling. Any comments?

I check the alignment of the back wheel while moving, looks straight, so shouldn't be the alignment problem. The guy did told me the chain will cause loud sound, but I didn't expect this

feng125 SG

i had a similar problem abt a month back with frightening consequences.

i told the guy to tighten my chain for me as it was slacking. it was a simple thing to do and didn take him 5 mins even. alignment was ok, slack was just right, but i noticed a high pitch sound coming from the rear wheel, it sounded like somebody scraped his nails against the black board but not loud. only when moving slowly can hear, faster speeds i dun hear it at all.

a few days later i heard a pop in my rear wheel. fearing a puncture i stopped by the petrol station and checked. nothing wrong with the tyres or the air pressure, but now every turn of the wheel came with it a sloshing sound. the next morning while on the expressway, i felt a slight wobble while travelling at 60km/h. den suddenly at 90km/h, a louder POP den the rear wheel went nutz on me, swinging left and right on its axis violently almost throwing me off. the car behind horned at me den came alongside to tell me my rear wheel was wobbling badly.

after wiping the cold sweat off, i made my way to a nearby motorshop by travelling on the shoulder at abt 20km/h. the mech said the bearing on one side of the wheel popped totally and my axle was a little damaged due to the wobbling. luckily for me i only had to change the bearing for a small price and everything was fine after that.

god knows wat would have happened if i was going faster at that time...

aaron017 SG

Me more jia liat... that time chain very losse... When turning right at the junction, my chain came out... the whole bike was shaking and jerking... lucky never fell down... Very Happy

daniuge SG

can tighten the chain myself one or not huh?

aaron017 SG

Can... but u know how meh?

kaiQ SG

Seen them done a few times - at the rear wheel, remove the axle nut split pin, loosen axle nut, loosen the 4 nuts at both side (not sure necessary or not), move the rear wheel back. Afterwards tighten everything back. All this while the bike should be upright, not slanted. That means you need 2 person or a centre stand.

My advice is, dun do it yourself, go bike shop do it. very cheap-$1, some even free.

Anyway, today went another bike shop and tell them the problem. They told me the chain had been too tight (the previous shop did not do a good job), and they loosen it. Now better, lower noise, but still got noise. Maybe next servicing will change the chain.