Chain advice please

The Red Planet wrote:

If something's on Sheldon Brown's site it does not have to be correct.
The pins used in SRAM chains have a tight fit and can be reused. The
thing to be aware of though is that one supports the chain in order to
avoid damage. This is common practice with cycle builders. Quick links
are used to make it easier to remove a chain, but they are not needed.
This technique is for instance used at velomobiel.nl and at Re-Cycle,
both cycle builders in the Netherlands.

What was quoted from my site was:

"To withstand these high stresses, modern chains have rivets that are
tighter fitting into the chain plates. The new rivets are difficult to
remove and reinstall without damaging either the rivet or the side
plate."

I said "difficult" not "impossible." A person who is careful and
skilled in the use of a chain tool can generally re-join Sram chains
without damaging them, but it requires careful alignment and a
sensitive touch on the chain tool to make sure the rivet is going in
straight.

Being a bit of a cheapskate, I sometimes make chains up for my personal
use by joining cut off scraps from lots of new chains. I have examined
the rivets and cage plates with a microscope and not observed any
damage from this.

However, I do not do this on customers' bikes as much for reasons of
potential liability as anything else.

The chain tool is a tool that requires more skill than most. It's one
tool I'll never lend because a careless or insensitive user can easily
wreck one. I still own and sometimes use an old Cyclo chain tool that
I bought when I was in high school more than 40 years ago.

I tend to be rather experimental in configuring my own bikes, but
conservative when dealing with customers' bikes where somebody else's
skin is on the line.

Sheldon "Standing By What I Wrote" Brown
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Give a man a fire, and he will stay warm for a day. |
| Set a man on fire, he stays warm for the rest of his life. |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

Mars wrote:

If something's on Sheldon Brown's site it does not have to be correct.

But most probably is.

Rich

Rich tikte glashard:
Mars wrote:

If something's on Sheldon Brown's site it does not have to be correct.

But most probably is.


You're right. But as Sheldon said himself he wrote that it was difficult
to reuse pins; so its in the hands of the mechanic.

/Mars

Sheldon, thanks for the clarifications. Very informative!

wrote:

I said "difficult" not "impossible." A person who is careful and
skilled in the use of a chain tool can generally re-join Sram chains
without damaging them, but it requires careful alignment and a
sensitive touch on the chain tool to make sure the rivet is going in
straight.

Case in point: when visiting NL to try out various 'bents, both the
places we went (Ligfietscentrum in Briel and Ligfietswinkel in
Amsterdam) adjusted chain length on every single try out by popping
links in and out of the chain with a tool. You could see that both were
/very/ experienced with chain tools and could've done it with their eyes
shut. In comparison, I use a chain tool about once every 2 or 3 years,
and am paranoid and slow and clumsy with them (so I use Powerlinks!).
But if you're a dab hand with a chain tool it looks like they can be
used frequently and easily without undue problems.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 08:39:46 +0000, Peter Clinch
said in :

Case in point: when visiting NL to try out various 'bents, both the
places we went (Ligfietscentrum in Briel and Ligfietswinkel in
Amsterdam) adjusted chain length on every single try out by popping
links in and out of the chain with a tool. You could see that both were
/very/ experienced with chain tools and could've done it with their eyes
shut. In comparison, I use a chain tool about once every 2 or 3 years,
and am paranoid and slow and clumsy with them (so I use Powerlinks!).
But if you're a dab hand with a chain tool it looks like they can be
used frequently and easily without undue problems.

Shimano 9-speeds allegedly require special treatment, but I have
frequently split and rejoined Sram 9-speed chains with a chain tool
and it's trivially easy, and I've never broken one either.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

Just zis Guy, you know? aka Guy Chapman wrote:
On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 08:39:46 +0000, Peter Clinch
said in :

Case in point: when visiting NL to try out various 'bents, both the
places we went (Ligfietscentrum in Briel and Ligfietswinkel in
Amsterdam) adjusted chain length on every single try out by popping
links in and out of the chain with a tool. You could see that both were
/very/ experienced with chain tools and could've done it with their eyes
shut. In comparison, I use a chain tool about once every 2 or 3 years,
and am paranoid and slow and clumsy with them (so I use Powerlinks!).
But if you're a dab hand with a chain tool it looks like they can be
used frequently and easily without undue problems.

Shimano 9-speeds allegedly require special treatment, but I have
frequently split and rejoined S[RAM]ram 9-speed chains with a chain tool
and it's trivially easy, and I've never broken one either.

An upright rider I know had the 9-speed Shimano chain on his bicycle
break on an invitational ride. I spent 20+ minutes with a Park CT-5
chain tool [1] fruitlessly trying to piece the chain together (neither
the special Shimano pins nor non-Shimano reusable links were at hand).
I gave up and lent the rider money to buy a new SRAM chain (Power Link
included) from the SAG.

[1] http://www.parktool.com/products/detail.asp?cat=5&item=CT-5.

--
Tom Sherman - Fox River Valley
"Twisting may help if yawl can chew gum and walk." - G. Daniels