How loose or tight should my chain be? when i land off a jump i hear something smacking and im almost positive its my chain, cause it droops a little. TIA

 

This is how I adjust my chain I have my roomate or (personnal mechanic) adjust the bolts to where there is a little slack in the chain then I sit on the rear of the bike with all my weight all 180lbs then he checks the tension and if it is a snug fit and not to tight or too loose then we leave it alone but always check it with someone on the bike before or you could bust the chain obviously....if you hear the chain hit when you land a jump then it should be too loose

 

well that was not that i informative besides the part of "if you hear the chain hit when you land a jump then it should be too loose" LOL thats cool though i got the drift, ill snug it up a bit with me on it, thnx
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Having a person on or off the bike is not going to make a bit of difference when tightening the chain. No matter how much or how little weight is on the bike, the tension of the chain will be the same. Unless the person on the bike has thier feet down and is pushing the bike foward or back. NOW, in your service manual that came with your raptor (hope you still have it) there is a section on this and you need to measure the slack and adjust accordingly to the manual. If you don't have the manual, i'll scan it for you and send you a pic of what you are supposed to do. late

 

One more thing..incase you didn't get it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]. by the slack, I mean the amount the chain can move up and down about half way in between the front sprocket and the rear sprocket.

 

i made mine too tight, i could only move it a little up and down, pretty tight. and when i would ride after like 5mph i would hear a grinding noise. i adjusted my chain to have 1" of slack.

 

Well obviously tighten the chain to the specifications in the manual but if you dont have one laying around...And yes it does make a difference if someone is on the bike or not! If you tighten the chain and get on the bike guess what the chain will be more tight than before. B/c the bike is absorbing more axial loads than when the chain first adjusted. Once you adjust the chain have a friend or whoever check it with you on the bike just to make sure it is not too tight with you on it. Thats just how i do it and its not the golden rule of chain adjustments. Just my opinion.

 

I know this is your oppinion but, so I guess Yamaha is wrong..hmm..thats funny because the manual says, and this right out of the book : "To check the drive chain slack, all tires must be touching the ground and there
should be no weight on it. Check the drive chain slack. . . ." Normal slack is 1 - 1.5 inch .....and accually the question of whether weight makes a difference or not bugged me so much I dragged my *** out to the freakn shop and sat my fat gut on the thing hung under the back of it and experienced this FIRST HAND... and it did get a tad bit tighter...so your right congrats [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] and I hate being wrong !![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] - Late

 

good idea to test with rider on it, as different weight riders can make it to tight, and if it gets tight just sitting on it, think of what it does if you land off of a jump, always a good idea to check while sitting on it to make sure!

 

Sluefoot didnt mean for it to bug you so bad you dragged yourself out of bed to just make sure. But I was not disagreeing with yamaha and I advocate the idea of "following the manual" but dont understand why you wouldnt check it with a rider on it first b/c you obviously ride with that weight on the machine so wouldnt it be wise to just make sure the chain isnt too tight with that particular amount of weight on it and to avoid any confusion 1)adjust the bolts to recommended slack 2) tighten all the bolts back as if it were ready to ride 3) then check with the riders weight thats all its just a simple precausionary check