This was a freak thing, and I know the odds are against it ever happening again, but it scared the :censored out of me bad enough that I'll think long and hard before buying another chain driven bike. I hated getting one for Amelia, but its all I could find in her size.
A couple thousand miles after putting a new, high quality O-ring chain & sprockets on my KLR I was 900 miles into a SS1k when my KLR lurched, lost power, and all heck broke loose. While this was going on I was going about 80 mph on I-81 in Virginia with a truck right behind me. As it turned out my chain, without warning, broke and instead of spitting cleanly out the bottom, it wrapped around the rear hub and the tail whipped until I stopped. My pannier bracket was mangled, chain guard gone, all brackets on the left of the swingarm mangled and swingarm chewed up, airbox ripped open, inner fender ripped in half, and lots of other broken bits. Over $1500 damage, and I was just happy my wheel didn't lock up. I never had a problem with a chain before, I know it was a freak thing, but my cheeks clench up every time I think about it. I spent what should have been a relaxing weekend camping and a slow, "take the long way home" ride riding around the south on a cheap non O-ring chain on mangled sprockets looking for new sprockets on a weekend so I could get home safely.
Put shaft drive on that Vee, and I'd be drooling over it. With a chain...I'm doing as I said...thinking long and hard (like I am with the Wee).
Not to mention...chains are only good if you put on a few thousand miles a year. At my mileage, I'd be dropping a couple hundred bucks every couple months on a chain and sprockets. That gets expensive quick!
