Chain tension and tensioning a chain

hippy And they're WELSH! :)

Glad to see even our colonial cousins have a healthy concern.

Apart from giving us a word for breaking a deal, what have they done?

Word for breaking a deal? Wtf is this - thesaurus night or something??

I just have a 'slight' concern nowadays about buying stuff from overseas when there's a local option.

hippy I just have a 'slight' concern nowadays about buying stuff from overseas when there's a local option.

You said it.

maybe a 1/2 cm of travel or less once tightened you should be able to move it up and down just a tiny teeny bit

31trum i use shimano bio pace rings, dead cheap...........bastard to get chain tension tho.......

i had those on a mid 90's shogun mtb

I had them on my first race bike..

What's a bike?

Sorry to dredge this up but I am now having similar issues.

New Miche Chainring. New EAI Cog. More 'play' at one foot forward than the other. Will try the sheldon method tonight but not holding out much hope after reading this.
Could it be that the secondhand Miche cranks are forcing the ring out of round?

I'll try the tap tap tap-eroo.

The problem might be a combination of the chainring and the crank spider.

It's likely to help by rotating the chainring relative to the spider, i.e. take the chainring off, noting where it was. Then rotate it forwards by two arms, and try again. If nothing else, it will move the slack spot to somewhere else, so it won't be at all obvious when you're trackstanding.

I've never done the sheldon thing yet, but understand what it tries to achieve. However, it may just be that there is a sligh high spot on on the chainring and on the spider, the trick may be to get these high spots 180 degrees opposite so they cancel each other out.

Therefore, try out all five rotational positions in turn to see which gives the best results, then when you've found the best do the sheldon thing with the stack bolts.

timmins - you beat me to it!

BringMeMyFix It's not a biopace ring is it ;-) ?

haha

31t®um [quote]BringMeMyFix It's not a biopace ring is it ;-) ?

haha[/quote]

I used one of these for a while. I convinced myself if was safe (cos I was too tight to buy a crank puller).

It sort of worked, as long as the tension was meticulously maintained.

Then a near-death experience crossing Farringdon Rd at 25mph finally persuaded me that, in reality, Biopace and fixed are a terrible idea.

i love a good chain tension thread. i fucking love it. that's what this place is all about!

I've tried the sheldon chainring truing/tensioning method and have experienced some minor improvements but not what I was looking for. When cleaning my chain recently though I did notice that the ring moved away from and closer to the seat tube so it's down to the cranks or the BB. It's annoying because you have to set your tension looser than you would like to avoid the binding, but then it's too loose.

So I'm thinking about new cranks myself but who knows, it could be the BB. How can you tell if it's the cranks or the BB? Don't want to shell out on cranks and then find out it was the BB all along.

Let it bind, let it bind, let it bind..

You'll get fitter and they'll eventually wear down and be smooooth :)

gah! just noticed that My sugino has this issue as well.

Shit it.

they wear in and it all becomes all nice and smooth

hear it people.

I'm tempted to try out this binding thing as the chain tension problem has been annoying me for months. I've also just got myself some chain tugs for the first time as the track ends have started slipping a bit and don't want to risk stripping out the hub threads.

You sure it won't knacker the hub and BB bearings?

Fsck 'em, that's what I say!

Nah, London weather is more likely to knacker the bearings. Don't OVERtighten them just get tension so it's not dangerous (if a little tight).
I've ran the Raleigh with iffy tension for ever and no problemo but I don't care about wearing shit out faster, I do care about dropping a chain.

the corpulent antipodean speaketh the truth.

If you set it so the tightest point is tight but not fully binding then ride the fucker it WILL even out, I've done it with three seperate drivetrains over the last year.

with a decent chainline, it has to be pretty damn slack to drop, and slack all over to boot

I gave it a go today. Turned up the tension just short of binding and what do you know, the smoothest ride I've ever had. Admittedly a touch harder work but worth it for the gain in control. The left/right leg power balance feels more even too. I also felt that it was easier to slow down using the pedals which I usually find extremely difficult and have to stand.

So thanks guys. I don't think I'll shell out on new cranks after all. This will do me for a while.

Rotated my chainring two holes and voila. Perfect tension all round.

Cheers fellas.

JOL Rotated my chainring two holes and voila. Perfect tension all round.

Cheers fellas.

After reccommending this based on logic alone, I tried it last night and it worked a treat. Much smoother + quieter now.
Everyone with tension issues should try this first.

think i'll give it a go - you have to do up the chainring bolts in a certain sequence when re-fitting, is that right?