#35 Chain differences

danford1

danford1

#1
#1
I'm working on a Manco T-Bird with a 6.5 hp Predator. Regular clutch on the engine to a rear sprocket. 5.5:1 gear ratio.
The bike has a lot of acceleration and power. The new #35 chain I just put on snapped in about 5 minutes of riding.
I looked at it and it says China and 35. So yeah, cheap stuff.

I dug out an old chain and noticed it was wider than the China stuff I just broke AND wider than some other 35 chain I have on a couple 10 hp mini's with torque converters and no breakage.

Look at this picture. You can clearly see one chain is wider and stronger. It takes a longer Master link too.

What kind of chain is the wider one shown on the bottom? Where can I get some more and some longer master links for it?
I want to buy some strong #35 chain so I don't break it again. The mini bike has a clutch band brake that works great. When the chain broke all I had was the scrub brake that was useless because the tire was wet. I'm glad I wasn't going very fast when it snapped...

Danford1

 
OND

OND

#5
#5
People who know do gold on gold . :wink: and I'm not saying that Amazon chain isn't any good. :no: I just don't like fixing chains and tightening engines and adjusters all the time ! :grind::hammer:


 
H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#6
#6
The EK silver is also good chain. Once you use the EK, or the RLV, you'll wonder why you ever did. Both are indeed wider than the cheap chain. The width difference occurs at the bearing flanges on the chain. However the standard #35 tool works fine. They come with ML's, although I've about quit using them. You will not find a half link for them, or at least I couldn't.

You should not have snapped "any" #35 chain with your power, unless it was defective. But you'll find smoother operation, and less stretch in the better grade chain, and now I realize why you were mentioning chain stretch in my thread. It is minimal with quality chain.

RLV Gold

RLV-0845_MEDfile_800_store.jpg

EK Silver

s-l300.jpg
 
danford1

danford1

#7
#7
Thanks guys! I bought some RLV Gold on Gold. NRRacing.com sells it by the foot. I needed 55" so I got 5' @ $5.29 per. Cheaper than buying two 40" pieces elsewhere. I have enough "stuff" laying around now. I'm trying not to over buy things for "spares".
I did buy a couple master links however so I'll have a spare.... hypocrite...
I really need to sell off a ton of stuff.................

Danford1
 
H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#8
#8
[MENTION=47323]OND[/MENTION] did you try the EK kart racing silver? So far so good. I'd been using gold, but thought I'd try the EK. Seems like the same stuff.
 
H

Havasu Dave

Moderator
#13
#13
OND said:
I haven't try it yet Dave...but I've been wanting to . Where are you getting it from ?
Click to expand...
I buy it from OldMiniBikes. I could find it cheaper elsewhere, but Hent and Vicky have been good to me over the years. The "other" Eric turned me on to the silver EK, and I have been very happy with it. It might be better chain than the gold, I don't know.

One tell tale for me on chain quality, is what it does in my chain tool. That cheap stuff, you go to splice it, and end up with a sticky link half the time, unless you insert a flat blade driver behind it. You guys know what I mean. Don't shy away from the EK guys. It's pretty good stuff so far.
 
steven Durham

steven Durham

#14
#14
Back when I had D&D we bought our chain in 500 ft rolls and sold it for $0.10 an inch and we sold lot's of master links. But most of the mini bikes had stock engines with more standard RPM. This chain was made in Japan. All the rest of the sizes like the 420 and 41 even some 50 came from Azusa Engineering . I ran double row 40 on my Tri-Sport Kohler powered race Trike ( KILLER ) and never had problems with it.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top