I just want to hire a DID chain riveter to do one bl**dy link........and I ain't paying £140 for one to do that!! AL
Thanks Darren and Halimaw.......... I just bit the bullet and bought one recommended by the DID importers for occassional use (in my case that might mean once.......if it breaks)......it is the 5914609 in the Bickers catalogue.....effectively the DID KM501-E....cost £43 The trouble is there are so many Chinese copies out there now, it's too easy to get ripped off. AL
I have studied the ends of rivet links.......it's no good just flaring the end which is what normally happens with a ballpene hammer; the softer metal should be 'dressed' so it mushrooms over without splitting.......... ......dressing with a ballpene at that size is not easy.....believe me, I can do minute work and dress metal well, but I'm not prepared to try swaging the end of the rivet over with a hammer. ....a split link (not available for my chain) is safer than a rivet end just flared with a ball bearing or ballpene hammer. And.....if you miss just once with the hammer, you could put an invisible crack in the link plate. However.............each to his own.........I would use a split link if they made one. AL
Our TZ350 outfit never had a spring link fail....... neither did our ZX10 or ZZR100 engined outfits.... AL
this Forum's great isn't it? been on the verge of buying a DID copy for 2 years now*as I still use a ball pein like you Steve but worry about the consequences of missing etc as I get older. I use a lump hammer as an anvil sat on blocks of wood around the slackest part of the chain on the bottom run. i know some people who do the hammering on the rear sprocket which is much easier of course but I feel sure it's not going to do the sprocket (particularly if a lightweight one) or the chain any good. *and 'crystal' John phoned up last week thinking the same!
I might be making the job easier anyway.......I'm changing the swingarm.......so old one comes off with chain still wrapped round it........ .......onto the bench, file rivet heads off, remove chain. Clean chain, wrap it round 'new' swingarm, put chain tool in vice and lay chain on it.....do link with tool and chain in vice.....fit swingarm......... well, that's the plan anyway.................. AL
I just recently changed my chain and sprockets. A very kind member on here, Hyabusa47 lent me his chain tool which was perfect for the job. I used a small angle grinder to remove the rivet heads from the master link and pushed out the pins. The beauty of this particular tool is the way it's designed. You can push the link plate onto the pins and the milled guide plate acts as a register to prevent the plate being pushed on too far, so as to compress the o rings too much. What I did was to measure the width of the normal links with a vernier, and then slowly push the plate onto the pins, bit by bit, taking loads of measurements until I got the master link width exactly the same as the normal links. Then it's a case of using a ball bearing tipped accessory in the kit to 'swage'; ( I think that's the right word) ,the end of the link pin. Again I took a lot of time and care doing this and used a magnifying lens to examine the progress of the 'swageing' until I was satisfied that it was sufficient to lock the plate. The job looks very professional and I am very happy with it. Chris, you should have taken me up on my proposal, and then we could have a great tool between us, hired it out and this time next year we could have been millionaires!:biggrin: Motorcycle Chain Breaker & Riveter Tool Complete Kit / 420-532 Chains / Motrax | eBay
John - I believe your post missed the following off the end :- "dictated to my secretary and sent via my Blackberry as i'm busy languishing on my 200ft yacht just off the private sector of the Costa del Dolce Vita"
Been there done that Chris, it's boring. Example: I used to know a guy that was married to a very wealthy Indian , I visited his Father in laws pad on several occasions in Bombay, the place was chocka with servants. When I wanted a cup of tea/drink, first I had to catch the eye of one of the servants, who was of course like all Indian servants hiding! Once I had found the servant, I then had to ask him for the tea/drink and wait for about 20 mins until it arrived ( by this time the moment had passed) and then when eventually it did arrive it would come luke warm and with hot milk, disgusting! If I want a drink , or a cup of tea, I would rather do the job myself and make it exactly how I like it. Just as I would rather change my own chain and sprockets, even though I could afford to have the job done for me even though I'm now down to my last 7 million!
Now would you believe it........I bought the proper ZJ rivet link twelve months ago..........but when I picked up the chain tool today, I also got another ZJ link........Both supposed to be genuine DID. Now when I compare the two, there are subtle differences.......like, the pins on one are slightly shorter than the other (say, 0.5mm - 0.75mm)........the daft thing is that the one I reckon to be genuine DID, its the one with the shorter pins.... ....comparing them with the chain, I doubt if they will protrude through the outer plate any more than 0.5mm. The other one with the longer pins seems to look more like the pins would be like the one in the chain with the rivets done. The genuine one (I think) has better looking sideplate metal and the pins are blued as per a gun barrel..........The other one has bare steel pins and has a sort of copper finish to the hollow end........ The little packs of grease are the same in both.........so I'm a bit puzzled as to what I have got here. As Victor said...........I don't believe it. AL
the copper coloured one with a hollow dimple is known as a 'soft' link AL and is designed with us ball-peiners in mind :smile: the propah link you describe is the one that makes me break out in a sweat because there is no room for error with these, and are meant to have the heads modified by a proper chain tool and not a hammer. As for the length well I got in a state over this last year because some of the chain links coming out of China were not adhering to the std nomenclature that is supposed to help the buyer select the correct link pitch and width. I ended up sending them back as the seller had to agree.
The links I have acquired....one definitely genuine and one possibly not, are hollow end for riveting tool purpose..........that's my confusion............. .....didn't make it clear in the description. I just think the genuine one looks a bit short. AL See why I prefer spring links?
