How often should you check/adjust your primary chain on a Harley Davidson?

I know the H-D manual says to do it every oil change.  But I have check it every time and it seems to be perfect.  Does it really stay adjusted for over 20K miles or am I checking i incorrectly?

Jump,

It is not unusual for the primary chain to stay within the adjustment for 20k. It really depends on how hard you ride whether the chain will stretch or not. If you do a lot of fast starts, the chain will stretch faster.

Since it just takes a minute to pull the cover and check it, I would still check it each oil change. A loose chain will wear the teeth on the sprokets faster and could possibly slap the case doing damage to the case.

Thanks BailOut, Your right it does just take a minute so I'll keep checking.

...and if you ever change the chain you could convert your tensioner to the new hydraulic style unit, just some extra peace of mind.

Good sugestion.  I have one on my 07 Road King and feel much better about the chain always being adjusted.  I actually had problems from a loose primary chain on my '02 that I had forgotten to check for a while.

As a tech... I always recommend converting over... when its too loose, you'll know and it's probably time for a new chain at that point but that is many miles down the road. There are variables to consider, how hard you ride, how fast, how far, do you do two up with gear for long trips.

Gear drives are great but have nothing to do with the Primary side and all gear drives are noisey, no way around it but that is my next project this winter is converting to gear drive. I have an 07 with the hydraulic chain tensioners and have already gone through a set so I think I'm just going to go for the gear drive to eliminate the need to be paranoid:-)