I bought a chain-monkey from Tru tension, brilliant bit of kit for setting your chain slack. �20 well spent.

Note from service manual (xt660r, 2007):

"Place the motorcycle on a suitable stand so that the rear wheel is elevated."

Center stand is perfect because there is no weight on the rear wheel. Regardless of the position of forks or rear spring preload, adjust the chain slack according the specified range of 40-55 mm.
In cases when a different swing arm is mounted on the bike, then, I will play with dog bone to find some reference for future adjustments of chain.
I have no experience with different setups of sprockets and how they are affecting the slack, if at all.
On the end everyone with his own logic.:love5:

What are the wear marks in the pic that tell you that the sprocket is cactus?

The play on the chain of the Tenere should be 50-60mm, as it says in the owner's manual and workshop manual, not 40-50mm. I don't know what's the play for the R and X though?

You can see the right hand side of the teeth are worn right down. I've seen worse but mine are bad enough!

Agreed the bike should be on a center stand wih the weight off of the rear wheel when adjusting the chain as it says in the manual, this eliminates any variation from fuel weight or tyre wear.

R and X chain slack should be 40.0 ~ 55.0 mm (1.57 ~ 2.17 in) according to the manual

So I fitted my new chain and sprockets today, the old ones were really shot especially the front one!

http://s21.postimg.org/bd62qyh6f/20160213_153658.jpg

Turns out my front sprocket was actually the wrong way around with the bit that pokes out pointing away from the bike as you can see in the picture. Fortunately I had a look at the service manual to check torque settings and noticed the diagram had it the other way around.

I also packed my cush drive rubbers with some inner tube. They were pretty bad and I had to use 2 layers of inner tube to get the sprocket carrier to stop moving but now it's in there nice and tight.

:occasion14:

There's plenty of life left in that, this one is really worn out.


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a34...pss25ycsob.jpg

Oh dear! :incon_aargh[1]:

That sprocket should be in a Museum of Horrors...!, poor bike must have been awful to ride! Steve