10 Common MTB Chain Maintenance Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

the chain is one of the most important parts of the bike and it's also under constant stress from you as well as the elements now looking after your chain is actually very easy once you know a bit about how they work so let me elaborate on that and i'm going to show you some classic chain [Music] mistakes kmc actually approached us and asked us to make this video to help people understand the types of mistakes that people make commonly with chains and more importantly how to avoid making those mistakes which in the long run is going to make everything work a bit better and it's going to help save you some cash [Music] okay so let's have a quick look at the anatomy of a chain so you can just understand a little bit about them now obviously chains come in all sorts of different speeds anything from single speed up to 12 speed which we have currently on mountain bikes so this one is a 12 speed kmc chain still has the same components as any other chain but it does have a few things to point out they have these outer plates now you notice on these outer plates if you look very closely they have slightly chamfered edges here this is to enable the chain to silently with no friction or noise basically move around up and down the block if you think it's got to stretch effectively sideways like this over a huge range of gears 12 gears in fact so that enables them to do it so silently and efficiently and also to hop up and down the cassette at the rear then you have like this blue link here for ease of so you can see it really that's the inner link so you get the outer links and the inner links and in joining them together you have the pins and then you have the rollers that go around the pins on the inside now the rollers actually rotate slightly it's not something that actually people pay much attention to now this basically is where the lubricant has to get into when you're lubing a chain absolutely vital if the loop doesn't penetrate into here it's not going to be doing its job now you also get the joining link on a chain now traditionally you would join a chain and rejoin the chain using the pins within it but since chain technology has hopped up you need a dedicated link to rejoin a chain or sometimes a dedicated pin but it's more common to have a link like this now they have all sorts of different names this one is a kmc one it's called a missing link now the most important thing to underline with all of these joining links on the chains is most of them are single use only unless they specify that it can be used multiple times this is why you need to make sure you have some spares of these carrying a spare means you will be able to get our mischief on the trail when you do break a chain which seldomly happens but it's always going to happen at the most annoying time and somewhere that's the furthest from home possible now fundamentally all chains from 9 speed which is 9 gears at the rear to 12 speed with 12 gears at the rear are all 2.18 millimeters as an internal measurement the distance it changes is the external measurement now the more gears you have the narrower chain has to get in order to retain the flex and enable it to have the room to actually pass between the gears so for this reason it's absolutely vital to have the correct speed chain for the amount of gears you have on your bike well you just won't be able to get those gears or they just won't work very well so make sure you're up to speed on that now you might have heard of something called chain pitch this is referring to the length of a chain now you look on all modern mountain bike chains and it's a half inch pitch and that's measured from pin to pin or one complete link in millimeters that's 12.7 millimeters [Music] uh-huh yeah i know there's some of you out there watching that do not maintain your transmissions and if you work in a bike shop you most definitely will have seen a customer come in at some point with what looks like tar painted on maybe they've used some three in one oil or any old stuff they've just kept on pouring on their transmission and kept on riding in foul conditions don't do this everything is going to be sticky nothing is going to work very well and you're actually making things worse for yourself because you're going to just prematurely wear everything out think what a transmission is it's built up of external components on a bike they're reliant on being clean and lubricated to work if you're not allowing them to be clean and lubricated you're just wearing them out with nature's finest grinding paste [Music] not checking your chain where now this is something that i think the vast amount of riders out there are guilty of and it's probably just because the lack of education and why it's important now almost certainly you will have heard of a term called chain stretch no right so you're not actually going to stretch these metal links that's not what happens what happens in chain stretch is the actual pitch of the chain changes so just to remind you the pitch is measured between those two pins how can that possibly get longer the chain doesn't stretch right well what happens is these internal components the rollers they wear out from the inside they get baggy essentially the chain's going to get wobbly and that pitch changes when that pitch changes you'll find that the chain that is perfectly designed to harmoniously work on your chain rings the pulley wheels and the sprockets at the rear will suddenly start be wearing on different parts of the rest of your transmission and it's going to wear everything out at an increased rate this is why it's so important to check your chain for wear now there's various different factors that can wear your chain out more and the number one is not looking after your chain not maintaining it you think if you're going to get sandy gritty mud on the inside of these rollers which can happen you're just prematurely just wearing it down yeah so keep an eye on your chain by getting one of these little feathers now this is a chain checker they are dirt cheap and they're very simple to use you simply line it up in the chain and then using the measuring gauge built onto one end here it will directly tell you printed on it when it's good or bad anything under point eight is good anything over point eight very bad now our recommendation here at gmbn tech is to actually replace the chain before it's worn now it's up to you how early you want to do this but the sooner you do this the more life out the rest of your transmission you're going to get and ultimately it's going to save you money now it's not uncommon to be able to get two chains to one transmission but if you're really hot on this you could get three chains out one transmission when you consider the price of a chain versus an expensive 12-speed cassette it's kind of a no-brainer now of course this is a great tool and we do recommend everyone have one bear in mind it doesn't cost a lot of money and it will definitely save you money over the years but uh it's not exactly glamorous as far as tools go so if you're the sort of person like me that really loves their tools there's only one way to go about it and that is to get yourself one of these bad boys now this is a digital chain checker and it is the most accurate thing it's actually ridiculous as far as tools go if you consider the amount of use it gets compared to other things like your allen keys but how cool is that [Music] now some people before even putting a chain near their bike seem to soak their chains in degreaser to clean away the grease that's putting them at the factory in order to start fresh now it seems i'm not the only one that recommends not degreasing the chain from you like this kmc actually says that you should never degrease one of those chains by putting it in degreaser because the fact that the grease that's injected in there at the factory is so hard or nearly impossible to replace and of course no grease on the inside of the chain just means it's going to wear out quicker as the grits and the grime can get in there and wear out those rollers changing the pitch of your chain now of course there will be some residue on the chain as new you have like packing grease around the chain now some people choose to wipe this off to start with you could do that if you want but actually it's already on there you may as well get your first ride underway and then get on with it as far as cleaning that residue off goes best way to do that would be to simply pass the chain through a bit of degreased rag just like this and then literally just wipe it clean from the chain okay next up is not using your joining links correctly now for whatever method there's a bunch of things that you can do wrong quite easily and there's a bunch of tricks that can make it easier for yourself now first up all you really need to do is hold the chain taut put the master links together and they clip shut but that in itself poses a few problems now if you're fighting the tension and you're trying to hold this together and put the link in at the same time it can be a bit tricky now it's possible to hold the chain tight enough like that and do it but again it makes it hard now the first option is by making one of these so i've actually made this from an old spoke cut it down and bent it with a pair of pliers now this acts as a third hand super useful because you can literally clip the chain together giving yourself a bit of slack to play with there meaning it acts as a third hand enabling you with your joining link to literally clip the chain together then you can remove the third hand tool and then snap it shut however there's also some very cool products available like this one so it doubles up as a few different things so firstly you've got the the slots in here to hold the chain in the same manner which i'll show you secondly you can actually store an additional link on the tool and thirdly it's a tie lever so that's the sort of thing you should be carrying with you when you go riding anyway brilliant piece of kit so simple to use so i'm just going to show you how to use it and then we're going to get the most out of actually joining the chain together now before i actually go any further i should point out if your bike has a clutch derailleur on it which it probably does if it's a shimano one make sure you've turned the clutch off so you're not fighting it and if it's a ceramic derailleur it will have a cage lock on there there's a little button at the back you can pull the cage down and lock the button in place and it keeps the cage there what you're looking to do is to make sure there's as minimal tension on the bottom part of the chain as possible and that increases the chance of doing this successfully so i've already done this with the clutch i'm just gonna use this third hand tool okay so i've got the third hand tool just holding the chain in place which means i'm now able to easily connect it using my joining link or the missing link in this case now something important to say is just to make sure on some of these the orientation has to be correct they're slightly different this one isn't this one's okay to put straight on but you need to make sure that when you put the joining link on it sits neatly into the holes there in the slack position like that and then you're going to be using chain tension to click it into place once it's clicked into place that's it your chain is permanently joined at this point so it's just important to make sure you've got everything right and you've got your chain length correct at this point now we've obviously got our missing link here ready to join the chain permanently but something to emphasize here is when the chain is on the underside of the chainstay it's not under tension when a chain is on the top of the chainstay it's under tension when you're pedaling that is where the tension is so we're going to use that natural tension in the chain to snap that link shut so what i want you to do is slowly rotate the pedals backwards and you have to be careful here because of the fact that the pitch is effectively a bit different because that link isn't joined so you might find the chain doesn't line up on the chainring just going to very slowly pedal it back until the link is at the top and then we're going to snap it so as you can watch here there's a good chance it's going to get a little bit messed up on the chainring as you can see but very slowly and then it'll click back in here there we go now this is the joining link right here now the best way to do this is by having your back brake on or by getting a friend to hold the back wheel so you can't move and then you want to put pressure on the crank as if you're pedaling and you'll see it just go click into place then always double check that both sides have seated correctly before you ride the bike because if they're not snapped into place the link could come apart of course that's no good now from time to time you're going to need to split your chain or remove some some of the chain links that could be out on the trail perhaps you've snapped a chain or you've damaged the link in which case you will need a chain breaker so this is a tiny little compact one something like that is a good investment to take with you in your riding pack anyway but when it comes to splitting these joining chain links then you really need something like this now this is a pair of pliers especially for splitting it in part you're literally going between the two links and you squash them back together and of course you shouldn't need to say this again you shouldn't be reusing these afterwards however these are great for the home mechanic that wants to work on stuff but you don't really want to be carrying something with you out the trails like this and the other option is actually something a bit more trail friendly set of tyre levers but they've actually got a splitter built into the handle you literally cross them over and it makes a little make do set of chain pliers absolutely brilliant and nice and simple i'll show you how easy this is to split the chain link apart you literally sit the chain link around the pliers and then when i feel like it i'll let you just squash it shut [Music] [Applause] now i'm sure a lot of you out there won't like the convenience of using some sort of spray that's got lube in it but not all spray lubes are as you might think many of them like this one are just a water displacer and some water disposers actually have a solvent in them so not only can they do a bit of lubrication but actually they can break down lubes and greases that are in the chain so you can't expect them to do the job of a proper dedicated chain lube so treat them as just that a water displacer if you want to use those things now as far as chain loops go there's various different styles out there's wax based lubes there's wet loops and there's dry lubes now wax based lubes tend to be much better if you ride in exclusively dry conditions to be fair with mountain biking that doesn't really ring home for a lot of us which leaves you down to two main choices a dry loop and a wet lube now both lubricants go on wet a wet lube is a thick viscous liquid very thick and it will stay in place that's the whole point of it it's ultra water repellent but as a result it can also attract gunk so you wouldn't want to use that in dry conditions however the water repellency makes it excellent in wet conditions the dry lube the wet bit in it is essentially a carrier that actually evaporates the lubricating particles are transported with this carrier into the chain where they soak in place then everything evaporates and you're left with a dry feeling chain this is what you want in dry conditions because you don't want sand or things sticking to the chain they're going to wear it out but equally because it's not a thick liquid that's going to stay in place if you ride in wet conditions you're going to wash it away quite easily now lubricating a chain is something is not hard but something again people do tend to get wrong you don't want to be lubing a chain on the top side of the links loop the bottom side of the links these are the ones that actually do all the work on the transmission and don't just lube it the second you're about to go out right in because most of it's going to come off in the first few pedal strokes give it a bit of time run around blink at a time give it a drop on each link and leave it for 10 minutes to soak in and then any excess that's on the chain then you can go around with a rag and just give it a wipe and then you could again hit those trails knowing that your chain is lubricated and technically it should last that bit longer [Music] now i can feel some of you smirking a bit here yeah i know how to clean the bike well actually do you really because i see people hammering their bearings on their bikes with jet washes and just the same sort of concept can prove problematic with your chains now chain baths are an excellent tool but they're only excellent if you know how to use them if you were to put a really sandy filthy chain straight into one of those chain bath style tools quite often you can actually make things a bit grittier and a bit worse the idea of cleaning your chain is to get all of that stuff out give your bike a bit of a rinse down first to get the worst off then you can start treating areas and paying a bit more attention to them you don't want to be putting a chain straighten the chain back when it's full of sandy mucky stuff give it a quick rinse and it's also it will save you on whatever chain cleaner you use because you won't be using as much of the stuff that's got to be good right now just a little bit of personal advice here as well is jet washers are phenomenal and they get the job done so fast but actually you'll do good every now and then if not all the time to use the old school bucket and the brush method when you clean with the bucket and brush it actually forces you to inspect your bike and to look at things for damage because you're paying so much more close attention and your transmission is primed for that because all sorts of things can happen with chains those joining links if you hit them on rocks and stuff sometimes they have been known to split open but the same can happen with any chain link it could have been twisted it could be mangled and for whatever reason and if you're not checking each individual link to see if they splayed out or looks like it could be damaged then you might be asking for trouble [Music] now as well as being dangerous because the chain could break it's going to be really inconvenient if your chain breaks now you might have seen a tool like this before the chain tool also known as a chain breaker or a chain splitter for good reason they're designed to split the links from the chain in order to shorten the chain or perhaps to remove a damaged link at the side of a trail now they're quite simple to use it simply has a pin driver here and has a guide set guide jaws that the chain sits into now something that's really important to say before i show you this is if and when you're planning on using one of these tools you drive the pin out you may not want to drive out all the way because you could reuse that pin to push back through and rejoin the chain however it is vital to say that this is not a permanent fix it's something you should be doing in an emergency situation only modern day chains have chamfered edges on the pins they're designed to be installed and they stay that way as soon as you put them back in again there's a chance that they're going to split and the link will come apart and the chain will break at a really inconvenient time maybe you're sprinting something like that when you're putting power down and your chain snaps it hurts trust me however you do need to learn to be able to do this because in an emergency situation when you don't have your missing link or your master link with you you may well need to do this to get yourself home so don't drive the pin out all the way just a case of very slowly and smoothly engaging the tool making sure the pin is completely lined up and then there you go and you can see it starts pushing out of the back side here now there is an element of guesstimation about this of how far you're going to go and that looks about right do one more half turn there and remove this and then you should be able to wiggle the chain itself and remove that link and then as you can see it protrudes very slightly on the inside when you're fitting a chain to a bike this is when you get one of the classic errors here in actually rooting it correctly so firstly you want to pay attention to all of your sprockets and the actual teeth in profile on your bike this one's got narrow wide chainring on here so you need to make sure the chain correlates to that and the narrow wide correlates with those chain inner and outer links same applies to the rear sprockets or your cassette and even on the actual pulley wheels guide wheels or jockey wheels depending on which derailleur you have sometimes they have a narrow wide profile to them now something important to say depending if you have a sram or a shimano transmission is to actually do something that's going to make it easier for yourself turn the clutch off if you have a shimano one like this one or if you have a sram design lock that cage out that way you're not fighting the spring when you're trying to route the chain through it now also you want to pay attention to this little metal tab here on the inside of the cage it's really easy to pass the chain on the wrong side of it now that basically the change has rubbed on it you won't necessarily notice this at first it will make a bit more noise than it should do but your gears will work but something won't be quite right you'll have additional friction and then the chain after a while will hop off these jockey wheels here and it will cause you problems so just make sure it's rooted correctly [Music] another classic chain mistake is not having enough of it running your chain too short now this will happen for a couple of reasons it could happen because it wasn't the correct length to start with if you didn't measure it out correctly or it could have happened when perhaps you damaged your chain out on the trail had to remove some links which i'm trying to illustrate with this one as you can see there's nowhere near enough chain to get into these top two gears now if you're stuck in a position like this you absolutely must remember at which point it's too much strain for the rear derailleur and the chain because you do not want to be spending more money to replace the radio use your limit screws at the rear to adjust your duration so you cannot get into those two top two sprockets think of it as just trying to preserve what you have now of course if you've had to split links out like this to get get home then chances are you'll need to replace the chain anyway but at least it might get you home now when you're fitting a new chain to a bike there's a few things you need to take into account now chains do come in different lengths this kmc chain was 116 links but it's also possible with other ones on the market to get 112 or 126 links now if you're not sure what yours is you can actually obviously just measure it by taking your your current chain off and measuring in the actual length of it or counting the links but if you aren't sure go for the longest option and you can always save some spare links keeping your riding back for the occasion when this might happen and you end up with a chain that's too short in the first place now when measuring your chain you do need to take into account a few things if your bike is a hardtail or a full suspension bike because of the fact full suspension bikes have an effect called chain growth as the bike moves through the suspension you use up more chain so you do need to factor that in and both sram and shimano have different methods of calculating the length of the chain so do consult the manufacturer's guideline when doing this because you do not want to be ended up with a chain that is too short for your bike firstly it doesn't feel very good secondly you're not going to get the range of gears and thirdly you could break your derailleur as well as breaking the chain when it's really strained under tension like this just think with this amount of tension that's on this if this bike had a lot of chain growth because of suspension that's just going to completely mangle that derailleur and you'll be buying a new derailleur as well as a new chain not good well there you go that is about all you need to know about all the classic chain mistakes out there like i said the most important thing really is to maintain it and keep an eye on the wear of your chain get yourself a chain checker well worth the money now hopefully the video has been useful for you there's a load of things we've covered let us know if you've if we've missed any in the comments underneath let us know which one you notice applies to you the most as always thanks for hanging around and watching our content here at champion tech see you in the next video

Channel: GMBN Tech

Views: 590,268

Keywords: cycling tips, bikes, chain, drivetrain, clean, chain wear, how to look after, bike chain, kmc, chain stretch, top tips, pro tips, how to clean chain, when to change bike chain, gmbn tech, mtb tech, bike tech, mountain bike, Bicycle (Product Category), MTB, bicycle, gmbntech, GMBN, Global Mountain Bike Network, mountain biking, Downhill, XC, Cross Country, Enduro, MTB skills, bike skills, mountain bike skills, bike, bike riding, cycling, gmvn, doddy, Қ, 4136, ꖀ, ዩ, 1v, ው, sec-maint-mon, Ҡ, ፕ15, ҩ, Ҧ, ҵ

Id: 8jVOD9vHt7Q

Length: 24min 8sec (1448 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 01 2020