Can anyone suggest chains and sprockets and bark busters they like?

[Megadan]

Chain. My personal favorite is DID. My top 3 are DID, EK, and RK Racing. I have never had an issue with any of those brands.

The real question is, do you want a standard chain or O ring style? I have a DID VX2 chain on my Hawk, almost 3k miles later and it's still good as new. Regular cleaning every 500-800 miles. Chain wax or dry lube for an O ring chain is all I use. They cost about twice as much, but also last about 2-3 as long in my experience.

If you want just a standard chain. DID 428H 128 Link will work well. usually around 30-35 dollars. The other brands and their similar equivlents are all within that same price range. Search through Amazon.

One tip I often give people is to buy a chain break and then shop chains on Amazon. You will notice that different link counts sell for different prices. My DID VX2 520 chain in the link count I actually need is $80, but I found the 120 link length selling for $52 from the same seller. Why? Less popular link count, so lower demand and thus lower price. All I had to do was break away 18 links.

Sprockets. I stick with JT, and not just on my Hawk. I have had great results with their sprockets on every chain driven bike I have owned. They are kind of the industry standard in quality sprockets.

[China Rider 27]

Somebody on the forum put these Handguards on a TBR7 don't remember the post (thank you) and I put them on the X-pect. I really like the design and the hardware is good. Inexpensive, they have gone down in price. Whether they will hold up remains to be seen.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

Another seller with more colors look like they are the same.

https://www.amazon.com/JFG-RACING-Bl...099PLCN5F?th=1

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Chain. My personal favorite is DID. My top 3 are DID, EK, and RK Racing. I have never had an issue with any of those brands.

The real question is, do you want a standard chain or O ring style? I have a DID VX2 chain on my Hawk, almost 3k miles later and it's still good as new. Regular cleaning every 500-800 miles. Chain wax or dry lube for an O ring chain is all I use. They cost about twice as much, but also last about 2-3 as long in my experience.

If you want just a standard chain. DID 428H 128 Link will work well. usually around 30-35 dollars. The other brands and their similar equivlents are all within that same price range. Search through Amazon.

One tip I often give people is to buy a chain break and then shop chains on Amazon. You will notice that different link counts sell for different prices. My DID VX2 520 chain in the link count I actually need is $80, but I found the 120 link length selling for $52 from the same seller. Why? Less popular link count, so lower demand and thus lower price. All I had to do was break away 18 links.

Sprockets. I stick with JT, and not just on my Hawk. I have had great results with their sprockets on every chain driven bike I have owned. They are kind of the industry standard in quality sprockets.

Ok great!


These are the brands i gravitated to online already. JT looked like the best sprockets and DID was the chain brand I’ve used since I was a child so I recognized it right away. I think they used to make rims or something too??

I guess I’ll go with o-ring so I can use the dry spray chain wax stuff. Pretty nice setup to use that.

It’s going to get a little more complicated now. I’m thinking of dropping a tooth or 2 in the back to get my revs down a tiny bit at 55mph top cruising speed. They are at 7300 right now. Really don’t want to add much to the top speed in 1st gear though or put strain on the clutch for single track/tightly spaced trails.

will the tooth change get me a percentage of ground speed? So if I’m going 55 at a certain rpm, I’ll get 60 at the same RPM? Or approx 10% more speed? Then in first gear at 5mph, I’ll just get 5.5mph? something completely unnoticeable, but also 10% more speed?

Is that how the gearing change works?

If so, then also, how does this affect the number of links needed in the chain?

If I drop 1 tooth in the rear sprocket, what number of links is needed?

If I drop 5 teeth, what number?

I don’t think it’s linear because the distance between the sprockets changes slightly too, since the radius of the sprocket changes.

[Megadan]

Without getting long winded, your thoughts on the gearing changes are more or less correct. What I would recommend is going to gearingcommander.com

They don't have the Xpect on there, but you can select the Bashan Brozz. The transmission ratios are basically the same on all CG motors and the Brozz uses the same basic tire sizes. Plug in your current sprocket teeth counts in the stock field, and then you can put in different combinations in the other two, and you can see the changes it makes in terms of speed at RPM intervals in every gear. Great way to judge what tooth count may work best for you. I played with it for a little bit, and in my opinion a 16 front 46 rear seems to put your desired 55mph right around 6900-7k rpm. In my experience 6700-7000 rpm is a really good sweet spot for cruising rpm in 5th gear

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Without getting long winded, your thoughts on the gearing changes are more or less correct. What I would recommend is going to gearingcommander.com

They don't have the Xpect on there, but you can select the Bashan Brozz. The transmission ratios are basically the same on all CG motors and the Brozz uses the same basic tire sizes. Plug in your current sprocket teeth counts in the stock field, and then you can put in different combinations in the other two, and you can see the changes it makes in terms of speed at RPM intervals in every gear. Great way to judge what tooth count may work best for you. I played with it for a little bit, and in my opinion a 16 front 46 rear seems to put your desired 55mph right around 6900-7k rpm. In my experience 6700-7000 rpm is a really good sweet spot for cruising rpm in 5th gear

Great! Thank you again. Really like when you participate in this forum. I will try out the website and see what kind of ratios and chain lengths I can work out of it.

Naturally, I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want some stump pulling first gear, climb up a wall torque at low speed, and then I want to go 80. Ha ha not gonna happen

[Ol,fart]

These are the brands i gravitated to online already. JT looked like the best sprockets and DID was the chain brand I’ve used since I was a child so I recognized it right away. I think they used to make rims or something too??

I guess I’ll go with o-ring so I can use the dry spray chain wax stuff. Pretty nice setup to use that.

It’s going to get a little more complicated now. I’m thinking of dropping a tooth or 2 in the back to get my revs down a tiny bit at 55mph top cruising speed. They are at 7300 right now. Really don’t want to add much to the top speed in 1st gear though or put strain on the clutch for single track/tightly spaced trails.

will the tooth change get me a percentage of ground speed? So if I’m going 55 at a certain rpm, I’ll get 60 at the same RPM? Or approx 10% more speed? Then in first gear at 5mph, I’ll just get 5.5mph? something completely unnoticeable, but also 10% more speed?

Is that how the gearing change works?

If so, then also, how does this affect the number of links needed in the chain?

If I drop 1 tooth in the rear sprocket, what number of links is needed?

If I drop 5 teeth, what number?

I don’t think it’s linear because the distance between the sprockets changes slightly too, since the radius of the sprocket changes.[/QUOTE]
Front sprockets are cheaper, easier to change and make a bigger difference !
1 tooth in front equals approximately 2 in the rear.
What is your current tooth count (front and back) and wheel size ?

[Ol,fart]

Not sure what happened there ? On this end it appears to have added my comment to your post. If you divide to front tooth count from the rear, you get the ratio. On my hawk it was 50÷15 stock=3.33 to 1. I currently use 40/16 for mostly street= 2.5 and 40/12 if I plan to stay on trails most of the day=3.33

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by Ol,fart

Not sure what happened there ? On this end it appears to have added my comment to your post. If you divide to front tooth count from the rear, you get the ratio. On my hawk it was 50÷15 stock=3.33 to 1. I currently use 40/16 for mostly street= 2.5 and 40/12 if I plan to stay on trails most of the day=3.33

Here are the tooth counts:

Front Sprocket Size 15 tooth
Rear Sprocket Size 46 tooth

3.07 to 1 stock gear ratio.

Right in the middle of the gearing you’ve chosen.

I have to replace the sprockets and chain since I’m at my 4000 mile maintenance point and the chain is still the stock chain. I figure getting a nice set and good o-ring chain will make for less maintenance down the road and even more reliability. So, I can choose whatever for the sprockets.

JT makes a 45 rear which is pretty standard it seems. I may just go with that. It should have almost no effect at all on the bike. I’ll keep the same size front and order that from JT as well

Looking at your gear ratios as an example, and not wanting to be changing sprockets to ride in different applications (this bike needs a 6th gear), I guess I’ll stick with the stock ratio which is a happy medium.

[grhanka]

Changing tubes is likely to be your most frustrating motorcycle repair. You need a prybar to remove the tire, and that's likely to damage the bead. If you use a prybar to reassemble, you're likely to pinch the tube even if you're careful. Without a prybar, you need two men to stand on the tire and shove it back onto the rim. It's just barely doable if you lube it up with dish soap. Don't forget to lube the tube with corn starch or baby powder, so a light inflate/reflate cycle can straighten out the wrinkles.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Boatguy

Looking at your gear ratios as an example, and not wanting to be changing sprockets to ride in different applications (this bike needs a 6th gear), I guess I’ll stick with the stock ratio which is a happy medium.

keep in mind that he also has a Hawk, which has a larger 18" rear wheel. Us Hawk guys are effectively 3 teeth larger on the rear sprocket than your bike to end up at the same overall final drive.

In essence, to match his setup on your bike you would need a 37 tooth rear sprocket if you wanted to end up at the same gearing and RPM range that he has.

That 16 front 46 rear I mentioned? For us to match that on a Hawk it would be a 16 front 49 rear.

If you were wanting to stay with the 15 front sprocket, then you would want to drop to a 43 rear sprocket in order to end up with about the same ratio as a 16 front 46 rear that I recommended.

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by Megadan

keep in mind that he also has a Hawk, which has a larger 18" rear wheel. Us Hawk guys are effectively 3 teeth larger on the rear sprocket than your bike to end up at the same overall final drive.

In essence, to match his setup on your bike you would need a 37 tooth rear sprocket if you wanted to end up at the same gearing and RPM range that he has.

That 16 front 46 rear I mentioned? For us to match that on a Hawk it would be a 16 front 49 rear.

If you were wanting to stay with the 15 front sprocket, then you would want to drop to a 43 rear sprocket in order to end up with about the same ratio as a 16 front 46 rear that I recommended.

Ok, Dan. I like this approach because it shaves just a little bit of the excessive RPMs off. I have lots of concerns about low end torque and having a low enough first gear for tricky stuff off road. So, this very subtle adjustment should preserve that while helping shave a little bit of the winding out off for road rides.

Thanks. I used the site you suggested too.

Just have to see what teeth are actually available in JT sprockets too to.

Edit: they are definitely available

[Boatguy]

Can anyone direct me to actual sprockets they bought that are on their Lifan and working?

It doesn’t matter how many teeth. I just need to figure out the bolt sizing and geometry. For front and rear sprockets.

Now I think I know why my other thread got a little heated. Most everyone in the world is able to just take their rear wheel off, set everything aside, measure the sprocket completely, then match it up online. I can’t do that.

I have to do my repairs in public. In just a few minutes. I don’t have a private area to work on the bike. I have to do it outdoors in public. Imagine a Home Depot parking lot or outside an auto parts store. That’s my situation. I don’t actually live anywhere. I travel.

So, when I do something on the bike, truck or RV, I get it all lined up, and do it fast. In like an hour. I’m not able to take something apart, leave it sitting around, and then put it back together. I have to quickly do it like a NASCAR pit crew.

I did the brakes on my truck like this - pads and rotors, at auto zone .

So, I need to be able to order the correct parts to make the quick change.

I don’t have a center stand, I don’t have most of the things everyone takes for granted. Might switch to a toy hauler RV eventually depending on how things go in other areas of life so I can have a garage to work on things. But for now, it’s in public repairs only.

Does anyone have some links to the ones that they have ordered for the same bike? Lifan xpect?

I was thinking about starting a new thread to ask that in the title, because people may not see this buried all the way at the end. But, I think that might be a little redundant.

[TominMO]

See post #14 in this thread.

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by TominMO

See post #14 in this thread.

Duh.... sorry. Missed that. Or rather looked, then forgot. Can you tell I’m trying to do too many things at once?

[JFOlivier]

The 43 tooth rear sprocket I got through Amazon and it was :JTR810.43 came in from the UK and was not very expensive about $25 if I remember correctly.