chain slack

[max]

you all are overlooking one thing... there is a green and red zones marked on your adjusters. if you have proper length chain and it's not old and stretched from excessive miles, if the adjusters are in the green zone, you're fine.

this from cb750, but shows my point

Not to derail the slack conversation, but I feel this applies somewhat...

I just performed my first chain clean and lube today and have now adjusted the chain to as close to 1 inch of free play as I could get (owing to the few people here who agreed a slightly tighter chain seemed to shift better).

However, when adjusting the set screws it was immediately apparent that they were wildly different from one side of the bike to the other. The manual states when adjusting, make sure you perform the same turn on each side, but it mentions nothing about how to align the wheel when they are not set at the same distance to begin with.

I blame the dealer that I purchased the bike from. I have found that they claimed they changed the oil and filter (they didn't), changed the brake and clutch fluids (they didn't). The only thing they did do was goop grease on the chain that flung everywhere. And now apparently it seems they only adjusted one side.

I got out my Mitutoyo Calipers and measured the following before making any adjustments.

Chain side, before adjustment: 0.467 inches
Brake side, before adjustment: 0.596 inches

After adjusting the tension on the chain side to as close to 1 inch as possible, I then adjusted both sides to the following before torquing the axle nuts to 83 ft lbs.

Chain side, adjusted: 0.684 inches
Brake side, adjusted: 0.683 inches



Did I do this right or should I have left them with the disparity in the gaps because that is not how the wheel is aligned?

Woops you seem to be the type to test this out;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by7L3M8ai-0

I might add that i could not do this measurement on the centerstand, it interfered with the string and also the position of the front wheel is not super critical because of the way the discs line up as you may find out.

Seem to remember that the markings on my bike were not completely in agreement with the alignment as shown here, since we're now on this subject.
It may pay to verify that yours are correct and this method will be a reliable way to check alignment in your case.

With great regard to all methods above none of them actually verify the actual wheel is in line with the front wheel, they all should do that if all other parts are accurate, the method with the string does measure the actual wheel alignment but we are realy getting into the semantic stage here.

Lord Popgun makes a good point, i adjust mine with some tension on the axle nut, something like half the torque so it stays in place and;
In addition to the adjustment i tighten the axle nut and then tighten up both adjustment bolts ccw. to prevent the axle bolt traveling forward under load since these bolts don't have a locking nut to prevent them changing position, something i might change in the future.