chain slack

[max]

Thanks Max. So, just thinking out loud here (I’m clearly not going to do it). By Honda setting the limits as 1” to 1 1/4” in theory it only NEEDS to be 8mm (sorry for mixing measurements BTW) to allow sufficient slack in the drivetrain before it locks up.

In other words there is a decent safety margin built in here so unless you do your chain stupidly tight there should be no problems, at all.

Interesting points jfro, from what i remember during the test i have a feeling that the chain will run out of slack -before- it reaches it's tightest point if adjusted at 8 mm on the center stand, in other words the headroom ( difference between at rest on the center stand and tightest point ) is not a linear sum but changes with chain tension and angles.
From memory the difference was closer to 10 mm the first time i tried to do the same thing with the chain at 50 mm slack but it was not a very accurate test so i repeated it when i took the pictures.

You may actually want to try out your theory, do the same test and let us know, i like to know where the limit is and others may do too.

My way of thinking is that the lube inside the chain is motivated around the pins with every half revolution, seems to me that you don't want to evacuate the lube every time the chain rotates with too much tension but leave enough space for the lubricant to access this spot instead of creating a dry spot on the pressure point similar to glazing up of the cross hatching inside the cylinder wall which provides the oil film for the pistons,

Another thing is sprocket wear, not so much a problem with our bikes but i can imagine more wear on the front sprocket if the chain is too loose and started riding higher on the teeth wearing that part out sooner?

Certainly not an experienced mechanical engineer but i try to figure out the stuff i don't know by testing and observing the results combined with some reasoning, like Richard Feynman said; the first step of a theory is guess and then test your idea to see if it is correct.