If you don't have a strap available you can remove one of the bolts in the suspension linkage and let the bike drop down until the countershaft, swing arm pivot bolt, and rear axle line up. Then adjust the chain to 1/2" play.
On my Lifan GY5 I end up with a full 3.25" of play with the bike on the side stand! Yikes!!! Absolutely necessary though if you don't want to break something.
The GY5 rear suspension geometry sucks. One of my winter projects is to move the swing arm pivot point down an inch or so on the frame.
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Originally Posted by dieselhead
The problem with chain slack on these bikes is the radical swing arm geometry fools you into "thinking" you have adaquit slack when you might be way off!
To be sure you are not yoking your engine hard in the undersize bolted engine mounts when you hit a bump,jump......whatever makes a shock compression, there is only one way to be sure your chain is correctly adjusted.
To see if you got it right, get a tie down strap and hook it to the rear rack and down to the swing arm at the lower chain guide. now sinch the strap tight untill you have compressed the rear shock enough that the swing arm is actualy pointing to the front sprocket. With the swing arm "mostly" inline with the front sprocket, you have the maximum distance between the 2 sprockets. Here is when you should look at your chain slack and adjust it to (IMO) no less than 1/2 inch. Thats fairly snug but still not binding at max extended possition. The shocker comes when you let the strap loose and see how much slop you now have in your chain with the bike on the kick stand 8O . From a mechanical piont of view "THIS" would be the right amount of slack.
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