Chain vs. Shaft drive

General motorcycle conversation

Moderators: Volker_P, tidd650

Brynr
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2012 1:02 am

Chain vs. Shaft drive

Postby Brynr » Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:29 am

Does anyone have experiance with Shaft drives? I was wondering how they compare to the chain drive preformance and maintanance wise.

iansimpson
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:51 pm
Location: British Columbia, Canada

Re: Chain vs. Shaft drive

Postby iansimpson » Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:03 pm

I had a 1984 Shadow and it had a shaft drive. No maintenance required, besides checking the gear oil from time to time. I never had to put any in, had the bike for 2 years. I never really noticed any performance difference except when you give it some throttle it sort of tenses up compared to a chain drive. I also would assume they are heavier.

User avatar
old gringo
Posts: 304
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:24 pm
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia

Re: Chain vs. Shaft drive

Postby old gringo » Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:21 pm

Chain drive: more efficient power delivery, more maintenance

Shaft drive: generally less efficient but less maintenance.

I had a Moto Guzzi and a Honda CX500 both with shaft drive. Shaft drive was smoother and had less maintenance hassles. I noticed that both had a weird sort of torque wind up but that may have been the transverse V engine design as opposed to an inline engine. I've heard the same about BMW s.
Also, the performance issue was a moot point as I don't flog a bike that hard anyway. :lol:
Laissez les bons temps rouler

Wren
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:22 am

Re: Chain vs. Shaft drive

Postby Wren » Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:08 pm

I've had both on stock and performance bikes. I'm partial to the shaft drive. No real maintenance to 'em and pretty much bulletproof. For really long runs I really like shaft drive.

Wren

jdsun6780
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:49 am

Re: Chain vs. Shaft drive

Postby jdsun6780 » Fri Jul 03, 2015 10:22 pm

I have a 79 CX 500. Shaft drive is great. If you do your own maintainence there is gear oil to change and you need to grease the shaft splines when you take the rear wheel off. I read to change the oil every engine oil change which seems a little excessive.

It's a "closed system" so there's little upkeep where a chain needs to be clean, lubed, changed, and aligned.

socal1200r
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2014 6:52 pm

Re: Chain vs. Shaft drive

Postby socal1200r » Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:19 pm

I've had numerous bikes with shaft drive, namely Moto Guzzis ('74 Eldo LAPD, '78 V50, '95 1100 Sport, '98 EV, '03 Jackal). They're MUCH easier on maintenance, basically keep the fluid levels topped off and grease the fittings every now and then. A shaft setup is heavier than a chain, but the sturdiness and less maintenance that's required makes them more desireable, IMO. However, when you have to do maintenance on a shaft setup, like replace the u-joints and such, it will cost more than a chain. But by the time that happens, usually around 100K miles or so, you'd have already gone thru 4-5 sets of chain parts. For me, given a choice, if the same bike had a choice of chain drive or shaft drive, I'll take a shaft every time.


Return to “General Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 32 guests