Tightening my chain

Could anyone tell me how i'd go about tightening my chain? I know I need to loosen up my back wheel amd pul it. Just scared that i might put my wheel out? Any tips/ vids would be great! Im currently riding a single speed.

Easiest way for non-mechanical people is to push a tennis ball(something) down tight between the seat tube and wheel.
Is chain tight (but not too tight..)?
Is wheel straight in drop outs?
Tighten wheel nuts, roll back bike to remove ball.

Thanks, mate! I'll give it a try! Really don't wanna fuck it up, haha! @|³|MA3K

yellow pages / phone directory wedge it between the wheel and the downtube
this will hold it tightish and roughly in place, then with one hand you can then do the final micro adjustments while having the final spare hand ready and available to tighten your nuts

Not a fan of this technique as I believe it encourages too much tension on the chain.

If you ride a bike with a singlespeed drivetrain you really should learn to tension the chain properly, it's one of the few skills you need to keep your bike running good, it's a lot easier to master than say indexing gears and it's arguably more related to your safety than the likes of gear indexing, especially if you ride without a (rear) brake.

I would encourage you to use your hand between the tyre and seatube to set the tension initially and to then 'walk'* the wheel backwards or forwards to fine tune the tension.

• loosen the nut on one side and use your free hand to manipulate the wheel side to side at the point where it passes the chainstays. Repeat with other side nut if neccesary. Moving the wheel towards the drive side chainstays will increase tension, towards non drive side will reduce it.
  
  

To be brutally honest though, if chain tensioning is beyond you I'd suggest you see if there's a mechanic or just a more mechanically able mate that can be persuaded (beer, Jaffa cakes, etc) to give you some advice/lessons.

@M_V good point
it was playing on my mind after i posted, i was thinking about mentioning chain tightness .... honestly
i should have added make sure chain isn't so tight you can play a middle c on it
you don't have to ram the yellow pages in there too hard
if you bend the cover to 180 degrees you get a wedge formed by the open edges of the paper this will allow for a bit of leeway fine tuning
obviously once the yellow pages are in there your free hands can check chain and micro adjust so you have the right amount of play on the chain

Cheers for the input, lads, very much appreciated! @dicki @mechanical_vandal Do you know if there are any good youtube videos to demonstrate? I'm more of a visual learner ;)

get ya self to the hackney pedlar or some other community bikeshop on one of their weekly training days and they'll show you in no time.

Good low-maintenance long-term solution is to get hold of some of these, assuming your bike has track dropouts (i.e. if your wheel is inserted from the rear of the bike)

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/gusset-chain-tensioner/rp-prod34985?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_name=UnitedKingdom&gs=1&gclid=CN3vqN_g_MACFarpwgodgo4ARg&gclsrc=aw.ds

Really appreciate the response, guys! I did it myself and went out on a decent ride yesterday and seems to be good. Gonna invest in a chain tensioner, seems like it would be a good long term solution! Cheers, lads! @ajo1989 @Brazelephantman

Thanks for starting the thread, I wouldn't have found out about the great tennis ball idea otherwise!

or the yellow pages !

I didn't even realise the yellow pages still existed... ;) @dicki @ajo1989