Tightening Loose Motorcycle Chain, Aligning Rear Wheel, and Test Driving

This video is all about performing maintenance on our workhorse motorcycle which is a 4-stroke Kawasaki motorcycle with a sidecar that is less than 5 years old. The maintenance that I performed in this video is tightening the loose chain of the motorcycle and then aligning the rear wheel of the motorcycle. A few days ago, I noticed a clanking sound suddenly appear on the chain cover. At first, I tried to remove the lower chain cover and then test-drive it and the clanking sound seems to go away. So, I assumed that that sound is only caused by the chain bumping the lower chain cover. With that being said, I put the chain cover back (aligning it fully so that the chain will not bump it again once I get to drive on rough roads. But then the clanking sound seems not to go away and it only got worse so I decided to tighten the chain. After removing both the lower and upper chain cover I now noticed that the chain is actually very loose. A loose chain will cause it to sway left and right when the road is bumpy therefore making the chain the chain cover. Then I proceeded to tighten the chain by loosening all the nuts but there was a nut that I forgot to loosen which you can watch on the video what nut it is (deep inside me I was laughing at myself when I realized that I did not loosen the nut, haha). Then after I loosened the said nut I again proceeded to pull the rear wheel backward so that the chain will tighten then after that I attempted to tighten the nuts keeping the rear wheel from moving. But again, I realized that I am doing it wrong, you can see in the video how I finally get to tighten the chain and align the rear wheel at the same time just by tightening two nuts, and in my opinion, it is the correct way of tightening the chain and aligning the rear wheel, you can see it in the video. This is actually only the 4th or 5th time that I am going to tighten the chain and align the rear wheel of this motorcycle since I only got to take responsibility and manage it in the later months of 2021..

I learned to drive a motorcycle on my own. Prior to driving a motorcycle for the first time in the latter part of 2021. I am actually very much skilled in bicycling which I started to learn back in the 1990s. Before I get to drive a motorcycle I actually have the knowledge of how to make a motorcycle go forward since I get to ride motorcycles on my way to school and back home again. Whenever I ride a motorcycle I am always looking at how the driver makes the motorcycle go forward, then I am also observing how they drive on the road. I think that knowledge helped me a lot because I can say now that I am a very defensive driver. And here is another very interesting fact, I only got to drive a single motorcycle (no sidecar) also in the latter part of 2021. You see, when I first experienced it I can say that riding a bicycle is very much the same as riding a motorcycle but they are technically different since a motorcycle has a motor driving it forward. Another interesting fact, I first learned to drive a motorcycle with a sidecar before I got to try driving a single motorcycle with no sidecar. And with all honesty, I am very much afraid of "speed" so when I am driving my fastest is always at 60 KPH.

By observing those that are doing it in actuality. And again, in all honesty, I was afraid at first to perform the tightening and aligning since I am thinking that I will be breaking something when I do. But doing it for the first time will get you out of that feeling and then the next time that you are going to perform it you will be more confident. Just don't do it if you are planning to use your motorcycle on the same day (if you are a novice driver). Also, you will learn the extent of how tight the nuts will be as for me, I am still afraid to exert the full might of my strength on tightening the nuts since I have seen my eldest brother doing it and ending up beheading the bolts and the nuts lost their threads. As of now, the tightness of the nuts that I tighten can last for 5-6 months before they get loosened by everyday driving.

That is all for now guys, catch you up with the next one. Wishing you all safety, good health, and abundance.