Pastor Rons chain problem

My friend has a long history with bikes and maintenance, and works as he wishes in his friends bike repair shop, his thoughts on the problem.

My first question is HOW LONG IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN SPROCKETS? A long run will cause chain slap without any type of guide/tensioner. Slap is bad. Look at the long travel chains on dirt bikes, they all have numerous tensioners and guides to keep chain in check. Kerosene is a no no. It attracts dirt and attacks the rubber o-rings. WD-40 on a rag is the popular cleaning agent followed by a dry rag wipe and then lube with a QUALITY lube. Some folks even avoid WD-40 and prefer a petroleum free cleaner because of the o-rings, but I have always done okay with WD-40. Do this on a hot chain right after a ride. Where does these chain and sprockets live? Rear brakes wear much faster than front brakes because they live in an environment where they get little cooling air flow and the dust and grit kicked up by the bike is worse on the rear. If this chain and sprocket combo is in an area where dirt is prevalent and little cooling takes place that is going to accelerate wear at a pretty good pace. I’m leaning towards the environment where the chain lives and I bet the manufacturer knows this and that’s why they say 8000 miles is the average. Why not belt drive like the Spyder? Talk about a very nasty, dirty place to work. The RT belt is practically fully surrounded by bodywork and other parts. It is a hot, dirty place to work, but yet over 100,000 miles is the norm for these belts. My vote is on the environment where these chains work and this set up screams for a belt drive system.

Makes sense to me. Hopefully my GT3 chain will last a while. Time and mileage will tell.

Just a thought here. Why could this not be a problem of misalignment of the sprockets. There are a couple of inexpensive lazer chain-alignment tools available which would certainly confirm that the chain were properly aligned.

Perhaps the sprockets themselves are not plumb, or rear sprocket is twisted (?) relative to the fixed front sprocket. Either of these would add a lot of stress both the sprockets and chain.

Tim

Tim that's why I said this, I've seen it with chains and V BELTS, it doesn't take much and the longer the distance between pulley / sprocket centers the worse it is. <<>>> Any offset between the sprockets can put the chain in a bind and cause even more wear.

I just say poor design

thank you everyone in your interest and information, that I will consider all. However, I was just informed by a brother on the Trike Talk forum that he is willing to meet up with me to investigate this issue and HOPEFULLY resolve the problem....IF their is one. Thanks again everyone, and I WILL keep you posted.

I think like anything, once you modify it you loose some reliability. No matter how well engineered it is, its a modification outside of the original design. I had a Tow-Pac kit that fell apart. So when it came time to replace it I did a bunch of research and the MotorTrike kit got the best overall reviews. I dont think we will put even 1500 miles a year on ours, and if it does turn out that our sprockets fail at 8000ish miles than we'll deal with it then. Im gonna get in touch with the guy who did our GT3 kit. He has been a service tech/master mechanic FOREVER and has been doing MotorTrike kits since they started. He'll be honest about wear items and labor cost to repair. Will post my findings. Overall, we like out GT3 kit. Its not as refined as a factory trike but it rides nice and seems well put together.