Chain & Sprockets

Time for a change

It's Sunday 13th, it's raining, I'm part way through changing the chain & sprockets on the Tiger & I've just returned from Webb's (Peterborough) in the car having just ordered some bits for the Tiger.

Here's what happened. I started off well yesterday, got the Tiger up on the bench, front sprocket undone (with the help of an impact gun) removed the chain by grinding off one of the links and took the rear wheel off. There are 5 studs holding the rear sprocket to the sprocket carrier, so I began undoing the nuts. Three of them came off easily, one was seized to the stud so unscrewed the stud as well and the last nut just turned. I thought it was finger tight at first, but it turns out the thread on the nut (or stud, I'm not sure which) was knackered., so the bolt just spun round. A pair of mole grips to the top of the stud removed it, but I need a replacement.

That was the reason for my trip to Webb's. I was hoping they might have studs & nuts in stock but sadly not, so I have two of each on order & they should be in by Wednesday.

For now, all I can do is clean all the oily residue off the swing arm & everywhere else I can find it so everything is all clean & sparkly to put it all back together again. I started cleaning last night, but there's still a lot to do today.

I'll also change the dash bulbs as well, while the bike is on the bench.

While at Webb's, I sat on a couple of newer Tigers, specifically the 1050, an XTX800 and a nice 1200, just to see what they were like. What struck me about all of them was that the handlebars on all of them were far more pulled back than my 955i. Now I positioned my bars due to using a tank bag that attached to the fuel filler cap. Any further back & the bars interfered with the tank bag. However, it's not fitted at the moment, so I might experiment a little more with the bar position to see if I can get a more comfortable ride.

Lots more to do & think about before I can ride again.