made chain too short - options - real urgent!

[BullGod]

I wasn't concentrating when i put my new sram chain on and I made it the right length but with 2 female ends, not 2 male ends. Thus the chain is now 1 link shorter than the old one, which was already too short.

it seems to "ride", but the reat derailleur is pulled really far forward, and there isn't really much of an "s".

I have a race tomorrow, leaving at dawn, and I am worried about racing on such a chain.

is riding possible with a too short chain?

The only solution I can think of is to use the one spare sram power link I have, plus a wipperman connex link to add some of the unused spare excess chain to make it longer.

will this work? Is 3 connection links in one chain asking for trouble? does wipperman connex link work with a SRAM chain and cassette?

please help.....

 

[kdelong]

I wasn't concentrating when i put my new sram chain on and I made it the right length but with 2 female ends, not 2 male ends. Thus the chain is now 1 link shorter than the old one, which was already too short.

it seems to "ride", but the reat derailleur is pulled really far forward, and there isn't really much of an "s".

I have a race tomorrow, leaving at dawn, and I am worried about racing on such a chain.

is riding possible with a too short chain?

The only solution I can think of is to use the one spare sram power link I have, plus a wipperman connex link to add some of the unused spare excess chain to make it longer.

will this work? Is 3 connection links in one chain asking for trouble? does wipperman connex link work with a SRAM chain and cassette?

please help.....

Add your power link only and ride the hell out of it! As long as you can get all of the gears, riding on a short chain won't hurt anything. Didn't you save your extra links for a situation like this? I have a bucket full of small lengths of chain from shortening a chain. I am a cheapskate and keep these so I can fix a broken link instead of buying a whole chain. As a matter of fact, if I can match them up, I could probably come up with a chain or two out of the bucket .

 

[BullGod]

Add your power link only and ride the hell out of it! As long as you can get all of the gears, riding on a short chain won't hurt anything. Didn't you save your extra links for a situation like this? I have a bucket full of small lengths of chain from shortening a chain. I am a cheapskate and keep these so I can fix a broken link instead of buying a whole chain. As a matter of fact, if I can match them up, I could probably come up with a chain or two out of the bucket .

i meant to say powerLOCKs - the totally non removable ones. Looks like it's achoice between racing on the 12-16, or buying a new chain on way to race.

 

[kdelong]

i meant to say powerLOCKs - the totally non removable ones. Looks like it's achoice between racing on the 12-16, or buying a new chain on way to race.

How was the race? What did you do for a chain? How did you do?

 

[BullGod]

How was the race? What did you do for a chain? How did you do?

i got the team to stop the bus by a bikeshop before the race and they sorted my chain out.

Race was a disaster, absolutely pissing it down with rain, and 25 degrees cooler than in the week, a pathetic 50 degrees. Got freezing cold hanging around signing in and "warming up" and then went quickly off the back with a few other sub 7% body fat types when the strongest teams rode everyone into the gutter.

such is bike racing in these parts.