well nobody likes when things are limp especially when it's your chain that's pretty floppy but
today we're going to be talking about chains so this is about as worn out as it gets and we're
going to be slapping a new chain and sprockets on the RM back here and explaining the differences
between some of these chains you know there's X-Ring chains o-ring chains standard chains and so
let's break it down so let's talk a bit about what an extreme chain what an X Ring chain is Chang
sounded like Joe Biden over here oh man so this is an extreme chain now the biggest difference
between a steel chain such as an X-Ring or o-ring chain and a standard non-sealed chain is that a
seal chain such as this one here has an O-ring or an X-Ring that seals off the inside of the chain
so when it's together you can see that is a sealed fit and that protects the inside of the chain from
wear from dirt water corrosion rust anything that I can get in there and deteriorate it and that's
essentially what causes a chain to stretch is when the pins wear out the chain stretches and then
all of a sudden you have a chain that's floppier than sandals on a fat girl now here's that chain
I showed in the beginning of the video this is a standard non-sealed chain you can see inside
of the chain there are no seals at all and here's an o-ring chain inside of there there are O-rings
and that is very similar to an X-Ring the next ring is basically the same thing just
has a different shaped ring and over time as chains wear out you'll see
some play in the rollers like this one here I don't know if you can see it in the video
or not but I can certainly feel it but when I pull it back and forth there is a decent amount
of play in this chain so this thing's pretty worn out now what a seal chain does differently than a
non-seal chain is it seals off the inside bore of the chain as well as this pin it keeps the grease
in there and keeps out the water and dirt and rust anything that'll wear things down so say
if you get dirt in there it'll rub back and forth over time as you're using the chain and it'll wear
down the pin as well as the hole and then in no time you got a sloppy fit here and Link by link
that chain will stretch out and what a seal chain does not do is seal off these inside rollers these
are completely open for dirt and water to get in there which is why it is so important to maintain
your chain these rollers rely on the chain lube you provide in order to stay lubricated from this
view you can see the seal keeps out the water and dirt from entering into the chain in between the
link and the plate so here I have an X-Ring chain that has a ton of hours on it and the chain itself
is fairly tight there's just a little bit of play in The Links but the rollers are completely shot
and you can see how much slop those have and honestly this chain could have lasted longer
if the rollers were in better shape so that's the one downfall of a seal chain is it does not seal
these rollers here and those will wear out much faster than the actual links themselves so if
anyone wants to come up with a killer chain design find a way to seal off these rollers and the chain
will last even longer so I wanted to show the difference between an O-ring and an X-Ring seal
because that's really the biggest difference here the rest of the chain is basically the same this
is what is different here so we have an O-ring from an o-ring chain and the X-Ring the reason
why they call it X is because it has two lips on the outer diameter and two lips on the inner so
when you look at it from the side it looks kind of like an X you can see the difference here now why
it makes such a big difference is because with the O-ring you have a much larger surface area that
is rubbing against the plates which equates to more friction more drag and therefore less power
with the X-Ring you just have these outer lip in the inner lip that is basically hitting on
the plates or sealing against the plates so with the X-Ring design that results in about 30 or 40
percent less friction than the O-ring design which is insane to me another difference here with these
two rings is the ability to seal out water and dirt and keep in the grease so with the X-Ring
it has those two lips which do a really good job keep it in the grease you can kind of see
right there there's already grease inside that Groove whereas the O-ring does not retain the
grease very well and so you're going to get much longer life out of an X-Ring chain because of that
so I want to show you guys how much a chain wears over time we have a used standard non-seal chain
and a new out-of-the-box x-ray chain you can see that use chain is uh pretty worn laterally
it really sags while we're talking about chain wear let's compare these 14s and how much they've
stretched we have a standard non-seal chain from a 2001 RM250 an o-ring chain from a 2003 CR250
an X-Ring chain off of a CRF250 and then it was on a CR125 and then a brand new out of the box X-Ring
chain now I don't know how old these two chains are these two chains were off of bikes that I had
bought from someone else this chain I bought brand new nine years ago about ran it on my personal
bike it's time for a new one so I thought this be a perfect comparison between the four let's go
ahead and pull all these chains tight I would save these three use chains are in need of replacement
so it'll be interesting to see how they Stack Up This is the standard chain o-ring and X-Ring
so it's pretty evident to see how these chains wore standard chain is about a link longer than
the two used seal chains the O-ring and X-Ring chains are pretty much equivalent now keep in
mind all these chains 112 links I counted them out and the new chain is about a link and a half
shorter than the used steel chains while the standard chain is it's about three links longer
than the new chain so yeah it's crazy to see how much this standard chain stretched over the years
obviously we don't know how long these chains have been used on a bike or what kind of bike
they were on or how well they were maintained now there's not a lot we can deduct here because we
don't know the life that these two chains have been through I do know this one I bought it new
and ran it on my bike for nine years before I took it off literally today for this video
it doesn't seem like stretched a whole lot only a link and a half over nine years which is actually
pretty solid a lot better than I thought it was going to be these rollers are pretty loose so I
was expecting it to be like three lengths longer and this chain here I kept up on it really well I
always made sure it was lubricated and adjusted perfectly so it appears like a seal chain holds
up pretty decent it's hard to say but I would say a standard chain definitely did not hold
up quite as well it stretched about twice as much as a seal chain anyways I thought
this was interesting and I thought I'd lay out the chains and see how they stacked up thought I would
check these rollers and see how they compare new chain is nice and tight roll smoothly obviously
used X-Ring that's pretty loose doesn't really want to roll
used o-ring doesn't really want to roll either but it's not as Loose as the X-Ring was
and the standard
it rolls but it's say that's pretty loose too looser than the O-ring and obviously
like I said before we don't know how long these two chains have been used but I bet you not as
long as this X-Ring and what's interesting about that is even though the x-rings rollers are way
more loose than the O-ring they still stretched about the same amount so that leads me to believe
the X-Ring chain has had a lot more years of use compared to these two and it still stretched the
same amount as the O-ring and stretched a lot less than the standard also another thing too is
look at the play in the standard chain the O-ring tiny bit
the X-Ring a little bit as well and so even though the rollers
are wearing out on these chains the pins are still holding tight
now you'll notice on seal chains the rollers are still going to wear just
like any other chain that is because the actual rollers are not sealed it is only
the plate to the link that is sealed so as you can see on this chain here so we have the seal
then the plate so that seal only seals off the plate to the link it does not seal the actual
roller there so a good indicator of how long a chain has been used is the roller aware this
one is extremely floppy there so this chain has a ton of hours on it like I mentioned it's got nine
years on it these chains don't appear to have quite as much so you'll notice the difference
between this chain which is a non-sealed has a lot of play and a sealed this one's tight those
seals protect those pins and links from wearing out and that is essentially how a chain stretches
is all these pins wear out it stretches out and then all of a sudden you have a chain that is
about an inch and a half longer than a new one so things to look out for when you're replacing
a chain is obviously how tight the links are and then how tight the rollers are we've got a lot of
play in these so obviously this Chain's toast this chain is toast this o-ring actually seems like
is pretty solid I bet you it has fairly low hours on it because these rollers are
kind of tight but they're just rusted and corroded and they're not really wanting to spin well so a
seal chain really only protects your chain from stretching like this this one's pretty loose it
does not protect your rollers from wearing out those need to be lubricated with chain
lube which is why maintenance is so important on these and also why when you replace your
sprockets you need to replace the chain as well in most cases if you have loose rollers like this
that is going to wear your sprockets out right away because the fitment from the chain to the
sprocket is going to be loose and that is just going to notch those sprockets out in
a hurry while I have these chains laid out I thought I'd show you the difference in drag
standard chain is really loose and free moving probably because it's so worn out
too but it is pretty free brand new as well a o-ring definitely way more stiff
this one's rusted so it's not that great of a representation if we stick it up like that
it'll hold its shape the used X-Ring a little bit more free still pretty sticky
a lot more stiction than the standard chain If We Hold It Up it'll keep its shape the new X-Ring
more free probably because it's well lubricated we stick it up
it'll fall down so you can see the difference there in Drag
now as far as weight goes we have three different chains here a standard chain a
o-ring chain and an X-Ring chain all 112 links so let's set them on the scale and
compare because obviously that's one of the biggest debates between chains
so the standard chain with no O-rings at all is 60.4 ounces
and we have the o-ring chain has O-rings in between the links and the plates
61.9 so just the hair heavier and we have this X-Ring chain Pro X
60.5 wow that is actually the same weight as the standard chain now obviously brand matters
here too because some brands have different specs with their thicknesses and materials and whatnot
these two are rental chains this one's a Pro X like I mentioned so honestly pretty comparable
between the three just the o-ring chain was what was it an ounce or two heavier now just
for comparison's sake just to show how much a difference Brands plays into the weight Factor
here is I have a standard chain Pro X this is a non-sealed non-o-ring chain now it is 120 links
and it is a brand new chain so I don't want to cut it down to 112. but we can calculate it down
per link so that is 63 ounces now if that was 112 links that would be let's see let's do some math
here divided by 120. 0.52 ounces per link times 1 12. so this would actually be basically 59 ounces
so lighter than any of these chains here so when it comes down to it a X-Ring or o-ring chain
provided you're using the same brand is about an ounce or ounce and a half heavier obviously
if they're the same length and that equates to about Three Links since each link is about half an
ounce while I had this chain out I thought I'd just measure the thicknesses since that's a factor
as well the X-Ring is 17 17 and a standard is 15.3 so about or a little less than two millimeter
difference so that is why some of the seal chains you'll run into clearance issues they'll rub on
the crankcase each one of these chains has its place no chain is perfect for all applications
now the standard chain is probably best for smaller displacement bikes so anything 125 CC
and smaller I would probably run a standard chain because it is lighter you're not going to lose as
much horsepower there and it's not going to quite stretch as much now the o-ring chain is going to
be your kind of old school seal type chain the X-Ring chain is more of a newer design o-ring has
been around for 60 70 years x-raying is probably within the last 10 I would say so the O-rings are
going to be cheaper so it is going to still give you that sealed design longer life but you're
going to be kind of fighting against a heavier chain with more friction and more drag now if you
want the longest lasting chain possible the X-Ring is the way to go so in my experience and what I've
seen online with other people too is an X-Ring lasts about twice as long as your o-ring and up to
like three or four times longer than your standard chain obviously that depends on the quality of the
chain and how well you maintain it but the design here just is the best it gets as far as like
sealing out water and dirt and so in my experience I've run an X-Ring on both my bikes on my 125 I
really haven't noticed that big of a power loss either so I'm perfectly comfortable running an
X-Ring chain on a 125 and one other factor to consider here is the style of riding that you
do if you're a purely track and you're looking for just the most horsepower possible go for a
standard chain that's what all the race teams run you know professional racing they want to reduce
as much drag as possible and they don't really care about the lifespan of the chain most off-road
guys run a seal chain like an O-ring or X-Ring those hold up a lot better in the conditions
like with the mud and rain and kind of deep ruts and stuff like that now the only downfall to the
X-Ring chain is the cost it is a bit pricier than the other style chains I would say it's about 20
percent more than your standard chain and about 10 percent more than your o-ring chain so you
can expect these to be anywhere from say 90 to 120 dollars for an x-ray now the quality of a
chain has a big impact as well if you're using a cheaper chain even if it's sealed it may not
last as long if you're using a top quality chain obviously you're going to get the most life out
of it and of course another thing to think about too you is a cheaper chain you run the risk of
snapping it or derailing it causing damage to your bike or possibly injuring yourself you know if a
chain snaps on the face of a jump like we've seen in racing sometimes that can cause some pretty
significant injuries so I would recommend buying the highest quality chain that you can afford
I mean on this bike in particular everything is kind of like on a budget status I refinish a lot
of parts I didn't really put a lot of money into it the one area that I'm really putting money into
is the chain and sprockets I'm not going to skimp on that if you have a chain problem that is going
to result in a lot of bike damage and possibly injuries now in my opinion and experience the
Pro X chains are some of the best chains that money can buy I've run them on a few different
bikes now and always been impressed with them had some good life out of them they come straight from
Japan using some really high quality steel and what's unique about the Pro X chains is they have
these holes for reducing some of the weight there as you saw on this scale these weighed out really
good in comparison to the other chains so that is why I am running a Pro X chain on this build
not really wanting to compromise in that area and that is also why I stock these chains on the store
so that is about as detailed as I'm gonna get with chains hopefully that made sense for you
guys and made your buying decisions a little easier along with all the variables that go
along with chains and sprockets now if you want a good quality chain at a solid price Pro X are the
way to go these are going to last you a long time especially the X-Ring chains the standard chains
aren't really solid too if you want a chain that's not going to eat up as much power these
are available on the store like I said earlier if you want a cheap chain just hit up eBay or
maybe that Wish app I'm sure they got some good ones but anyways that's the video for you guys
hope you enjoy this one maybe you learned a thing or two I'll see you in the next one
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