Chain length

[Succubus]

Quick question, before start cutting. 1979 Suzuki TS250. The stock sprockets were 15 tooth front, 40-tooth rear. I am staying with 15 teeth on the new front sprocket, but I am replacing the rear with a 52-tooth because I don't like the annoyance of having a front wheel on the ground and a practical first gear. My new chain is 120 lengths, the book tells me stock is 104 links. With the increase of 12 teeth on the rear sprocket, do I leave 12 extra lengths on the chain? I measured it up loose on the bike and it seems like I can easily take off six links, maybe seven instead of four (104 original plus 12 extra teeth equals 116, with means I take four off the 120 link chain), but I remember making a mistake with this on my last bike and I don't want to repeat it. I just don't remember what I did wrong. I only want to cut the chain once and I only want to use one master link. What say you? Am I figuring this correctly?

Thanks, y'all.

Pat

 

[dales298]

The way that I do it is to run the axle adj. all the way to the front place the chain as tight as I can get it by hand and where thy meet on the back sprocket will be where the master link will be. That will ensure plenty of adjustment. The worst thing I encountered was needing to take off one more link, and that was better than cutting off too many.

Hope it helps
Dale