Your Valued Opinions Please - Chain snap

dario28 · 03-09-2009 8:45am #1

Morning All,

What ya think of this

Bought a bike worth over 2000 from one of Irelands reputable bike dealers - Had it for 2 weeks and gears were bit noisy so dropped it in for a tune up

Guy tuned it and said its normal for the gears to be noisy from the start and even more so as cables loosen, so cycling home from work , going at a reasonable pace changed down a gear powered on and the chain snapped. Disaster

Brought it back to them no major apologies pretty much said I was riding it too hard, and should have heard the noise before the chain snapped - They gave me new chain and I brought it to store closer to home and another guy fitted it last night - It was a 10 speed chain and he reckoned the first one was too loose so he shorted it a bit, Guess what...cycling in this morning barely moving between traffic and downed a gear and snap goes the chain , this was a SRAM chain

What should I do , now I have no confidence in biking to work or in the bike shop guys.... I think whatever "Tune up" the bike shop guy did was wrong as I had put in over 100 miles before I dropped it into him

Caroline_ie · 03-09-2009 8:55am

Riding too hard and not using the gears properly can easily cause a chain to snap: you should avoid crossing your chain. (for example, the big ring on the front, and the easiest gear in the back)

dario28 · 03-09-2009 8:59am

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Riding too hard and not using the gears properly can easily cause a chain to snap: you should avoid crossing your chain. (for example, the big ring on the front, and the easiest gear in the back)

I pretty much kept it in the middle of the back cog for the whole journey today just to make sure I didnt cross the chain as thats what he said I had done the first time

petethedrummer · 03-09-2009 9:03am

Found this nice diagram:

Edit: just saw you were avoiding this.

rob1891 · 03-09-2009 9:07am

was the gear fully changed before you put the hammer down?

Could the powerlink be one of the ones effected by the recall:

http://nobmob.com/node/10249

dario28 · 03-09-2009 9:13am

petethedrummer wrote: »

Found this nice diagram:

Edit: just saw you were avoiding this.

Cool Diagram - Ya so I got 2 cogs at the front and kept the chain on 5/6 on the back for the journey ,I was probably doing 5mph just before it happened i changed gears started to cycle , it slipped twice and when I went to pedal it snapped

Lumen · 03-09-2009 9:18am

dario28 wrote: »

i changed gears started to cycle , it slipped twice and when I went to pedal it snapped

Perhaps I have misunderstood, but you should only change gears when you are moving and pedalling. Don't change when you are stopped, because you apply a lot of torque when pulling away and gears don't like changing under extreme load.

Sesshoumaru · 03-09-2009 9:21am

Are there not any chains on the market that are designed to be tougher?? You know designed to be used by people like me who had never heard of "crossing your chain" until now?

Lumen · 03-09-2009 9:32am

Sesshoumaru wrote: »

Are there not any chains on the market that are designed to be tougher?? You know designed to be used by people like me who had never heard of "crossing your chain" until now?

Singlespeed bike?

Turbulent Bill · 03-09-2009 9:33am

Sesshoumaru wrote: »

Are there not any chains on the market that are designed to be tougher?? You know designed to be used by people like me who had never heard of "crossing your chain" until now?

Standard chains should be fine. I regularly cross the chain (use big ring on the MTB while commuting and drop to 2 or 3 at the back when moving from lights), never had any real problems. Wear is probably increased but shifting is fine.

You should generally reduce the pressure on the pedals before shifting, and select your gear just before you need it, e.g., just before the base of a hill or just at the peak.

Sesshoumaru · 03-09-2009 9:34am

Lumen wrote: »

Singlespeed bike?

A simple yet elegant solution. Thanks

dario28 · 03-09-2009 9:36am

Lumen wrote: »

Perhaps I have misunderstood, but you should only change gears when you are moving and pedalling. Don't change when you are stopped, because you apply a lot of torque when pulling away and gears don't like changing under extreme load.

Yeah sorry should have been clearer , i was moving/pedaling while I changed

tunney · 03-09-2009 9:58am

Was it a city centre bike shop?

bcmf · 03-09-2009 9:59am

If this is a new bike I would take a guess that guy didnt fully know how to fit the powerlink/quicklink thingy. even a bog standard chain should be able to take a fair amount of punishment before it snaps.
The bike shop didnt begin with 'H' by any chance?

edit; just reread op and you brought it too a second shop to get the 2nd chain fitted?

dario28 · 03-09-2009 10:23am

bcmf wrote: »

If this is a new bike I would take a guess that guy didnt fully know how to fit the powerlink/quicklink thingy. even a bog standard chain should be able to take a fair amount of punishment before it snaps.
The bike shop didnt begin with 'H' by any chance?

edit; just reread op and you brought it too a second shop to get the 2nd chain fitted?

Im not going to name names. Just back from the bike shop , I reckon the first chain was pure bad luck, from looking at the guy put the chain in last night to the one today he did it totally wrong last night, he was standing on it using screw drives etc , taking over 10 mins for the original join then he took links out of the joined chain twice, the guy today had it on in seconds with no adjustments......

Fingers crossed !!!!!!!

donal_mcg · 03-09-2009 10:24am

I have to ask the same question as the OP with regards to trusting bike shops.

I dropped my 2 year old hardtail MTB in there for a tune up, never had an issue with it just wanted it to be serviced properly by shop as it had been a while. Got a call 10 days later (Wicklow 200 was on & they said they were busy) telling me I needed a new chain. Arrived to find a bill for new casette, chain & labour. Brakes hadnt been looked at (still loose) and waited 30 mins for them to tightened up again.
Wasnt happy but hey took it that they knew what they were doing. First ride out in Ballyhoura 3 days later, derailleur hanger snaps, derailleur smashes on rock and Im even further out of pocket with a bike that never gave a bit of trouble.
One 2 hour trip to Mr Skeff later and since then hopefully no more payouts for substandars service.

bcmf · 03-09-2009 10:29am

Bad luck or not. You could have ended up with your face planted into the ground or wrapped around the front of your bike. They either know how to do it properly or shouldnt do it at all.

blorg · 03-09-2009 11:18am

The chain probably did need replacing and the cassette is often worn if you left it too long. From your "it had been a while" I am guessing you maybe did not maintain the bike that carefully.

Now explain to me now how the shop deliberately sabotaged you derailleur hanger.

If the hanger snaps your derailleur is not going to work in any sense- are you sure the smashing on the rock bit didn't come first and was what snapped it? Otherwise I don't see how your derailleur hanger would first snap and cause the derailleur to "smash on a rock," it would just cause your derailleur to fall off.

Only way the bike shop could contribute to that would be if they put on too short a chain AND you were then cross chaining, even then it is unlikely that would snap the derailleur hanger, more likely you just wouldn't be able to go into that combination.

Derailleur hangers do break (they are designed to break to protect the frame) but generally from impacts. They can be fatigued from prior impact and then snap unexpectedly but this is not necessarily evident to look at the thing and it is unreasonable to expect a bike shop to pick it up...

lukester · 03-09-2009 11:26am

dario28 wrote: »

he did it totally wrong last night, he was standing on it using screw drives etc , taking over 10 mins for the original join then he took links out of the joined chain twice

Did he have a rivulet of drool on his chin and a far-away stare by any chance? And did he smell like Roquefort?

kona · 03-09-2009 11:36am

blorg wrote: »

The chain probably did need replacing and the cassette is often worn if you left it too long. From your "it had been a while" I am guessing you maybe did not maintain the bike that carefully.

Now explain to me now how the shop deliberately sabotaged you derailleur hanger.

If the hanger snaps your derailleur is not going to work in any sense- are you sure the smashing on the rock bit didn't come first and was what snapped it? Otherwise I don't see how your derailleur hanger would first snap and cause the derailleur to "smash on a rock," it would just cause your derailleur to fall off.

Only way the bike shop could contribute to that would be if they put on too short a chain AND you were then cross chaining, even then it is unlikely that would snap the derailleur hanger, more likely you just wouldn't be able to go into that combination.

Derailleur hangers do break (they are designed to break to protect the frame) but generally from impacts. They can be fatigued from prior impact and then snap unexpectedly but this is not necessarily evident to look at the thing and it is unreasonable to expect a bike shop to pick it up...

Spot on,

why do people think they can be critical of a bike shops work when they clearly do not have a clue about bike maintenance.

Id remove the bike shops name too, you are ruining their rep with unfounded bollix. To anybody who has a clue, Its standard procedure to replace the cassette with the chain.

kona · 03-09-2009 11:42am

bcmf wrote: »

The bike shop didnt begin with 'H' by any chance?

end in a 'S' and have 'ALFORD' in between??:rolleyes:

dario28 wrote:

Im not going to name names. Just back from the bike shop , I reckon the first chain was pure bad luck, from looking at the guy put the chain in last night to the one today he did it totally wrong last night, he was standing on it using screw drives etc , taking over 10 mins for the original join then he took links out of the joined chain twice, the guy today had it on in seconds with no adjustments......

Fingers crossed !!!!!!!

Im sorry , but you should probably name the first shop, No chain needs to be stood on and a screwdriver used on it. The guy clearly isnt a mechanic if this is his approach to bike mechanics.

was the first chain a shimano one by any chance?

donal_mcg · 03-09-2009 11:44am

Blorg, where in my post did I insinuate that the cycle shop had "sabotaged" my bike. Read the post and my question at the start was to ask how far the shops can be trusted to give good service? Apologies if that was not made clear.
The day in question that the hanger broke, it was 10 mins into the day and if you know Ballyhoura the trails at the start are very easy and there were no big bangs to the bike. Be that as it may from what you say it was either damage on the day or previous that caused it, my point was that I felt the work was shoddy and rushed and if there were a crack or damage it perhaps should have been noted by the shop as thats why I dropped the bike in there in the first place.

kona · 03-09-2009 11:49am

donal_mcg wrote: »

Blorg, where in my post did I insinuate that the cycle shop had "sabotaged" my bike. Read the post and my question at the start was to ask how far the shops can be trusted to give good service? Apologies if that was not made clear.
The day in question that the hanger broke, it was 10 mins into the day and if you know Ballyhoura the trails at the start are very easy and there were no big bangs to the bike. Be that as it may from what you say it was either damage on the day or previous that caused it, my point was that I felt the work was shoddy and rushed and if there were a crack or damage it perhaps should have been noted by the shop as thats why I dropped the bike in there in the first place.

You insinuated that the hanger snapping was the bike shops fault. It could have been damaged en route to the trail, the way you store it. Hanger snapping on a trail is usually caused by the trail. Its a normality. No need to bring it up along with other issues from the shop.

The shop replace the cassette, perhaps say they didnt, you would be complaining that your gears were slipping along with your brakes being loose.
From sombody who works in a bike shop, what people percieve as working okay, and what is actually being okay are totally different things.

donal_mcg · 03-09-2009 12:16pm

Kona, in reply to your post(s), I took names down and tried to clarify what I was saying. The point of me dropping the bike into the shop IS due to the fact that what I perceive to be working okay and what a mechanic does are two different things. I felt the bike was okay but, I wanted an expert to look at it as they would know better and be able to change/prevent things from breaking that I wouldnt. I had asked them to check drivetrain/brakes & fork but what I got was a changed drivetrain, obviously needed but nothing else. They had the bike two weeks and the casette and chain were all that were touched. I wasn't happy, wont use them again. Case closed. Names removed from OP.

kona · 03-09-2009 12:42pm

donal_mcg wrote: »

Last edited by donal_mcg; Today at 12:47. Reason: Names removed so as not to be todays subject of Kona's ire

Like a child that feels hard done by....:rolleyes:

blorg · 03-09-2009 1:37pm

@donal_mcg- like Kona I took from your original post that you reckon the shop was at fault for your snapped derailleur hanger. From your subsequent posts at least they are at fault for not noticing that it was going to snap in the near future... this isn't really a fair criticism of a shop, as I say it is highly unlikely anything they did contributed to the failure and it is not always easy to tell if one is damaged.

Bottom line I took from your original post is you took a bike that had never given you a bit of trouble into this bike shop and took the thing out completely mangled and about to explode into pieces. :pac:

Regarding bringing it to Mr Skeffington that seems like a good idea, I believe he is a very good mechanic and have also heard he is happy to teach you what he is doing while he is going about it- always worthwhile to understand more so you can keep an eye out and patch things up yourself quickly if necessary.

Your Valued Opinions Please - Chain snap

Comments