Chain Tension
- Thread starter Brad Wadlow
- Start date
Brad Wadlow said:
No chain tensioner. But you're gonna hate this - trial and error. You learn a few tricks here and there. My advice is to center the wheel, get the right amount of slack in there (half an inch sag will do ya i think), then crank the right side down first while holding the wheel in place. then take care of the left side. I know some guys that will pull the wheel as far back as they can, snug the right nut lightly, and while keeping the wheel centered, lightly tap the chain down with the wrench to bring the wheel forward and get the right amount of slack, then tighten the sucker down.
Of course, after you've tightened the wheel, you wanna make sure that your chain doesn;t come off or isn;t too tight.
No chain tensioner here. But I do something that I call centering the chainring. Maybe this will help: Turn the wheel till it gets to the tight spot (no chainring is perfectly round-just doesn't exist) once the wheel is at its tightest, loosen the chainring bolts and then tighten them back up. Alot of the time this will help to compensate for the chainring's imperfection even if it just moves it minutely. It's a trick a buddy of mine showed me years ago and can make the whole drivetrain tighter, smoother, and give overall better performance. If this helps anyone let me know.
teammiyata said:It's a trick a buddy of mine showed me years ago and can make the whole drivetrain tighter, smoother, and give overall better performance. If this helps anyone let me know.
Wouldn't you mean looser? I do something similar, if I get a tight spot. I find the tight spot, loosen the bolts, give the chain a squeeze and turn the back wheel until the crank makes 1/5th of a rotation. Squeeze and turn back wheel another 1/5th of a crank rotation. Repeat all the way around. MOst even chain tension that i was ever able to get.
ah, learn something new everyday. Yes, yes looser would be what your after.taras0000 said:
BTW how long does a set of chainring bolts last you? Of course if you don't mess with them they'll last indefinitely but I seem to get about 15-20 ring changes before mine strip out. I could just be a meathead but I had to finish a 120km ride with only four bolts. The last 50-I sounded like a cheap metronome. D'oh!
