No Products in the Cart
Author: Biju Kunnappada @ Cycling Boutique, Inc.
Date: -2024/03/04/ 07:28 IST
No cyclists ever likes a broken or tangled chain. Here's how to be cool and fix it on the roadside. Also learn how we can prevent and fix it, if the unpredictable trouble came across on a ride 🙂
In certain cases, we rarely see the chain getting stuck while pedalling and eventually breaking off. The cause of this is very clear but unpredictable or non-preventable fully.
If yout bicycle chain is made by top international makes and if it was installed by a top skilled and experienced mechanic (remember that bicycle shops around often do not have qualified mechanics on-board), you can drill down further to understand how a chain can breaks. One of the most trouble cyclists face is access to high quality mechanics around. You can see large number of bicycle shops, but its often a reality that finding a top skilled mechanic is a daunting task. At Cycling Boutique, we trust on our engineering skills and decades of cycling life, with highest level of bicycle mechanic skills, driven by passion. Our customers go through highest happiness as their equipments and bikes are served with the top notch precision and accuracy driven techniques and practices. We wish every cyclist have the same level of service quality and ethics available near to them!. Okay, now find the reasons for a bicycle chain breakage.
Rule #1: Chains are ideally designed to run on precisely strait lines. It expects the rest of the parts of the bike where it runs over is smoothest and calibrated with highest accuracy to move in a straightest line possible and the chain is super clean all the time, with mild level of chain lubrication present within the pin and roller of a chain. If not, the chain will try to derail and go off track. This results in the chain getting smashed under the hammering force of super sharp teeth of a cassette and chain, resulting in unpredictable physical damage to the chain.
The root cause of this is due to the misfired or inaccurate shifting happens while we ride the bike. The chain is an extremely strong object when it moves in strait line. The chain becomes vulnerable, during the time of gear shifts. While shifting the chain will be going through very risky and sharp teeth of cassette and crank at higher speeds. The shifting operation must happen smoothly and timely under fraction of a second. IF it's not happening (either with a lesser accurate shifting or concerns with the alignment of gears), the chain can fall in between the plates of the cassette or crank, where as it must have glided smoothly from one to the another. The chain wanted to go to a new gear, where as it may not be able to do it quickly. This result in lateral pressure on the plates of the chain with the entire force of your bike's inertia, making the chain getting tangled or twisted, and often results in chain breakage.
Due to the bicycle's variable level of shifting, no one can shift a gear 100% consistently and super accurately all the time. A fraction of second of delay sometimes cause inconvenience to us like this and every cyclist go through it one or the other time, in varying level of inconvenience during our rides.
You can compare this with a manual shifting car's clutch. When we do not engage the gears precisely and based on load, we may often notice the clutch grinding badly. The faster rotating clutch plates are not able to synchronise with the already moving plates of the remaining clutch plates, grinding at wrong places and unable to engage with the remaining shifting mechanism, resulting in a split second over grind of clutch plates.
What you need to fix a broken bicycle chain?
A chain tool (remover, breaker) - if the chain is a pin based. A replaceable chain link - in case if its of link type connecting. A new chain, if the links are damaged too much.
Procedure (in one word): Inspect damaged links, remove them if required, and re-attach the chain, after carefully routing the chain in its original direction and route. Check our knowledgebase articles on how to get it done in detail.
The chain breakage has nothing to do with the quality of the components. Just need to recheck and do a quick fix of the chain back. We will guide you and will make it preventable ahead.
For troubleshooting and fixing your bicycle chain concerns reach Cycling Boutique Experience Center (for those are in Bengaluru). We will give you a bit more guidance to make sure that you will ride more precisely and avoid future hiccups and also how to get it fixed by self easily. if needed.
You can buy online the finest bicycle chains made by the finest cycling brands - Shimano, SRAM, KMC, Taya, Campagnolo, YBN and many more from Cycling Boutique, who is the official supplier, service, sales and warranty partner for the iconic cycling brands in India. Buy these chains online from here: https://www.cyclingboutique.in/pages/search-results-page?collection=chains
