New Chain

keogh777

Advice please !


I need to change the chain on my road bike. Its got an Ultegra groupo. When you change your chain do you find you often have to shorten them or they generally spec'ed to fit. I am using a 53 on the front with a 26 on the back.

also any one advise the dura ace chain over the Ultegra

cheers

nak

You sometimes have to take links out the chain, do you have a chain tool? If not LBS.

There isn't a huge difference in quality between the two, depends how much money you want to spend. Nought wrong with Ultegra.

Raam

keogh777 wrote: »

Advice please !


I need to change the chain on my road bike. Its got an Ultegra groupo. When you change your chain do you find you often have to shorten them or they generally spec'ed to fit. I am using a 53 on the front with a 26 on the back.

also any one advise the dura ace chain over the Ultegra

cheers

You might have to. When you take off the old one, compare the length and go with that.

CheGuedara

+1 on possibly and probably will have to remove links & the ultegra chain is fine, no need to stretch further really (unless you're a weight weenie type).

Consider picking up some splitting links when ordering to make fitting and future removal easier too (they're usually no more than 3-4yoyos)

blorg

You will definitely need to shorten the chain, no question. They are always a few links longer than you need. To be honest the Shimano pin system works fine, you just need to be careful to follow the instructions when installing- you need to install the pin in the leading outer link and in the same direction as you pushed the old link out.

Personally I have never really got on great with supposedly removable links on 10 speed, I can never get them open and just break the chain instead. I can get 9, 7 and single speed quick links open easy enough.

trad

Count the links on the old chain and make the new chain have te same number or links. Do not rely on lenght as the old chain will have strecthed / worn and will be longer than a new chain with the same number of links.

CheGuedara

blorg wrote: »

Personally I have never really got on great with supposedly removable links on 10 speed, I can never get them open and just break the chain instead. I can get 9, 7 and single speed quick links open easy enough.

Wipperman or KMC FTW

SRAM do 10spd one too but they're locking and won't open once closed

keogh777

cheers guys

blorg

CheGuedara wrote: »

Wipperman or KMC FTW

SRAM do 10spd one too but they're locking and won't open once closed

I have used both the SRAM and KMC ones. The SRAM I knew don't come apart, the KMC theoretically does but I could not get it to, ended up just breaking the chain with a chain tool as I was replacing it anyway.

The singlespeed and 7/9 speed ones come apart fine though.

CheGuedara

Yeah, I've found the KMC ones stiff (had to use a narrow (needle?) nose pliers before to open a link) but the Wippeman ones are really easy to open - and I'm not sure that they're shimano/campag 10 spd specific either (open to correction on that)

blorg

Park have a special pliers designed specifically to open quick links, apparently it makes it a two second job, if you are that way inclined... I don't bother as I wash the chain on the bike and Shimano's pin system works well for installation. I would probably use a quick link if I needed to run two different chain lengths though for example (and indeed have quick links on my fixed gear bikes.)

Lumen

Previous discussion including of 10sp quick links.

Lumen wrote:

The simplest solution appears to be to buy a Wipperman 10s1 chain which comes with Connex link.

Blorg wrote:

For what it's worth I tried cleaning one off the bike once; it was an unholy mess and didn't really work too well. I probably wasn't doing it right but I haven't bothered since. I think the bottle I used was too small and I didn't use enough degreaser. The chain got all tangled up in the bottle and was a bitch to get back out the top, in fact I ended up having to break the bottle (it was a wine bottle ) And the chain wasn't any cleaner and there was black muck everywhere.

CheGuedara

blorg wrote: »

Park have a special pliers designed specifically to open quick links, apparently it makes it a two second job,<snip>

and it's pretty cheap too.. LINK