chain links

(breaking a rule to reply to Jim, but it is New Year...)

Most bike chains, especially those used with derailleur gears, haven't had special links for about 30+ years. You need a 'chain link extractor' tool, which pushes out one of the rods that form the chain, and remakes them afterwards.

J^n

No, some chains don't... Three systems seem to be in common use:

The older style split link, that can be slid off one side of a link allowing the pins and the fixed link to be pulled out from the other side.

The more modern version with a pair of links used back to back either side of the chain, where the hole for the non attached pin is elongated. With these you need to squeeze the two pins towards each other to push the ends of the pins into the larger bit of the hole - this then allows them to be removed. You can get pliers for the job:

Lastly continuos chains are also common - especially on chains that are expected to work on wide gear clusters. For these you need a pin driving tool, that can push a rivet out of the chain from one side. Like:

Not sure I follow? In some cases you can work without splitting the chain, but some front derailleurs done have cages than can be "opened", so you have to open the chain instead.

Alternatively, replacement chains that I bought for my teenagers' bikes (a roof leak let water get to them), did have special links that could just be clipped together. The existing chains didn't and were just chopped with an angle grinder.

thanks you are too kind

I just opened the cage and ran the chain through...all now working well ....

It's called Speed Link. I can easily disconnect the chain and remove it from the bicycle. You only need a puller if making adjustments to chain length, and needing to remove a pair of links.

Yes, obviously, chains need to have their length adjusted, because some chain products attempt to cover many bicycle designs and they have too many links. For some reason, the last four chains I've bought, all were perfect length, just hook up the Speed Link and go. Takes no time at all.

This gadget comes in the box holding your new chain. You don't even have to scavenge the old one from the previous chain. By putting it in the box, you know it's the correct one for the chain type.

Before the Speed Link, I used to use the chain puller. The gallery in Wiki has a few pictures.

Even on a Speed Link equipped chain, you still need the Chain Puller tool to remove a pair of links. The "slop" in the chain will tell you whether it needs a different length. I usually hold the old and new chains up and compare, as I expect the bicycle shop to have properly prepared the bike when I first got it. I've had to adjust chain lengths several times over all the bicycles I've owned. I own two chain pullers. The other one works with a one-speed bike.

If you buy a bicycle at the hardware store, the staff don't know anything about bicycles, so just about every bit of it could be wrong. If you buy a bicycle at a proper shop, the staff take some care in assembly, even it they don't enjoy doing fifty bikes in the spring that way.

Paul

Don't celebrate just yet. Make *sure* you put it through the rear derailleur correctly. There's two ways to thread it through, and one way will grind the guide plates off the derailleur. You might hear excessive noise coming from the rear if you do it wrong (chain strikes guide plate). I couldn't believe what I'd done when I figured it out. It was quiet after I threaded it correctly.

It really helps some times, when working on a bike, to take a few digital camera photos, then compare when your assembly job is finished. Like one time, I put the front forks on backwards (duh!) after repacking the crown bearing. These mistakes are easy to make if you're not paying attention. I just figured "oh, shirley it only fits one way" and tightened it up, then noticed my knees were bumping into something. It took more than a few minutes for a light to click on, and I figured out why the bicycle dimensions were no longer the same :-)

Paul

I nearly wrote '40+ years', but since that was also covered by the range I wrote, decided to be conservative ;-)

They were used on single gear and Sturmie Archer geared bikes. The chains were wider. (Between the side plates.)

Other systems, which had multiple sprockets on the rear wheel, had narrower links and you either used a tool to push out a pin or, if possible, opened the jockey wheel cage. ( You could use a punch and a hammer.)

I?ve no idea if Sturmie Archie type gears are still around. I?ve not seen one for decades.

hated the three speed too much of a gap between gears

but I didn't take it off the front.....I hate working on bikes all bikes including motorbikes ......

I had that on my very first bicycle. Sturmey Archer 3-speed with drum brakes. You can't find a brake with lower maintenance requirements than that. My uncle said he took the brake apart on one of the wheels once, but while I owned it, there was zero maintenance. It's not often there is something on a bicycle which "just works" :-)

The shifter adjustment on the other hand, isn't as good. It needs to be adjusted every once in a while. I seem to remember a fine tuning length adjustment, where the little actuator chain came out of the side of the axle. This is a newer version of the hub.

I'm sure where ever that bicycle is today, it still works. I have the generator off the bicycle, and that is still running all these years later. The bicycle might be from 1950 or earlier, I had no way to know for sure.

It's a great fitness bicycle. Driving that bicycle up a hill is like using a Nautilus for fitness. The regular route I took on that bicycle was full of hills.

Paul

Back in my childhood days, I had a second-hand German bike. The front brake was useless (a single brake block, pressing vertically down onto the tyre). However, the rear brake was the best I have had on any bike - it was a drum, so no problems with wet brake blocks/rims and (as the bike was designed to split in the middle for storage or carriage) it had no brake cable. The brake was applied by rotating the pedals about a quarter turn backwards.

As a child it was great fun to stand on the pedals, which applied enough brake force to lock the rear wheel and leave skid marks down the road!

My German bike was followed by a new Raleigh Arena. That too was heavy, although I only realised how much so when I rode a friend's bike three or four years later.

It too had nigh-on indestructible wheels. I rode it for transport, but also for fun with friends - thumping up and down kerbs, riding off road on sun-baked clay deeply grooved by caterpillar tracks ... sometimes with a friend sat on the pannier rack. The only damage was a bent spoke that I had to remove, after a friend's pedal went into a wheel while playing bicycle football!

Considering how I abused that bike, including frequently riding over glass and scrap metal (the open area with the brick-works clay pits was used as a landfill site for some years), the most amazing thing was that I wore the rear tyre through to the canvas, without ever having had a single puncture - until I lent it to my sister for one day, to do her paper round, as her bike had a puncture, and she managed to puncture mine too! Funnily enough, she did the same the first time she borrowed my car!

Mine will be long ago scrapped, but I don't know, as some scrote stole it from the garage one night.

I fitted a twistgrip in the 60's

When I was a student I had a 3 speed. I lived for over a year in the same place near a river, and my daily ride into uni was along the river. On a gentle slope. So I changed the rear sprocket so top was right for down the hill, and middle for up the hill.

When I left uni it became a PITA because I now had no gear that was right for on the flat...

Andy

what?

I remember borrowing a Rayleigh RSW (16?) which had a 3 speed SA hub for about 6 weeks. It was fine for very short rides but anymore and it was hopeless. I?d been used to at least 5 gears - 10 were a luxury then. Plus, it was heavy.

The Moulton was much lighter.

SRAM chains have a "powerlink", tool-less clip-together link.

Shimano chains have special pins, installed with a chain link tool.

They are, AFAIK, interchangeable.

Other companies may have other systems...

Thomas Prufer