Tightening the chain?

[ceo012384]

Originally Posted by Gas Man

Please... do explain. The only difference I see would be some difference in weight. Otherwise the weight of the bike is still pressing down on the swingarm.

I'm thinking outloud here.

The weight is resting at different points depending if it is applied at the spools (by the stand) or at the axle (when resting on the ground), which would change sag since the lever arm acting on the shock has effectively changed. Also, the tire itself is a spring and damper so that effects things as well, it is like adding another spring in series, so it takes some deflection too. To add some angle to it via the kickstand can change things as well, i.e. some stiction is plausible. All of those things would tend to make the suspension not compress as much, which would give you a tighter chain slack reading than with the bike on a rear stand.

The differences would be slight.... but when you're trying to measure chain slack with a couple millimeter precision I think they would be significant enough to consider.

Not sure if I've explained myself well, but it makes sense to me. Also my shop manual very specifically says to have the tire off the ground to do it, which sort of encouraged my thinking about this.