It depends, if you jack the rear end up by putting the jack under the swingarm its the same as if it was sitting on the ground. You do want the bike to have weight on the rear axle when you adjust. Also take care in determining how far down your suspension will go. My suspension goes negative and the chain loosens up, so bottoming out the suspension will not necessarily be the tighest point.

 

on a warrior it tightens when you sit on it, try my way trust me ive done it this way for years and never a problem.

 

ok yeah i'll try it out that would suck to have my chain fly apart.[my luck it would proably bust the case up] which happened on a old warrior.sucks very bad

 

Just saying that not all bikes have the same setup and that one should take care to make sure that they get it right. A chain jumping off the sprocket or snapping and busting through the case really sucks and all it takes is a minute with the wrong chain adjustment.

 

This is not rocket science. All chains are tightest when the counter shaft sprocket, the swingarm pivot, and the rear sprocket are all lined up in a straight line. This is never with suspension bottomed out or with suspension topped out but somewhere in the middle. When you find this location for your bike then make sure chain is not tight and you are good. My method on 3rd post above works for every chain drive motorcycle or quad. Don't trust anyone about 1/4" or 1/2" or 1". None of these are a sure thing. It varies if quad is on ground or jacked up and varies with amount of shock preload. As long as you cycle the suspension thru the full range of travel and the chain does not get tight, just close to tight, then you are ok. Too tight a chain can break and damage engine cases. Too loose a chain can jump off and damage engine cases. My method is only way to correctly adjust chain with extended swingarm. If you use owners manual chain sag with extended SA chain will be too tight every time. Suggestion above to sit on bike and reach down and have 1/2" sag is no good at all because it does not take into acct if rider weighs 100 lb or 300 lb.

 

I have a warrior, ive always done it that way, ive spoken with dealers, theyve told me to do it this way the best, 15 years of riding and never broken a chain, only replaced once, but hey that must mean i dont know what im saying though.

But hey, if you wanna get technical, get a manual and a set of calipers and make sure its at the exact incriment as what its stated in the manual. it doesnt matter to me, you could make this 5 minute job into a weekend project if you want, trust me its not that critical. you just dont want it too tight and you also dont want it too loose.

last post, done talking about it.

 

Good information Oldturtle. I agree 100%, you are correct.

 

well i guess you could say everbody has different was of doing things but from what i'm getting it needs to be tight but not to tight like i said before but i do think eveyone for there thoughts.