Chain down, chain down - chain snap, snapped chain, chain break, broken chains

My chain snapped this morning while pulling ahead of the Amwell Street Peloton causing me to weave dramatically through the mob with both feet on the ground. Fun. My question is - is it normal for chains to snap now and then or is it because I'm a spacker?

Also, if anyone can recommend a chain which doesn't snap (3/38) ... I know there was a thread about chains before but I can't find it :|

Chains break for three reasons mainly:

1) poor maintenance - ie knackered rusty chain
2) poor install (via chain tool)
3) Damage/poor install of masterlink

Modern chains rarely break due to manufacturing defects so I'm guessing its probably due to user error. But obviously this is idle internet speculation cause I don't know anything about your chain.

IMHO SRAM make mighty fine affordable 3/32" chains.

Option 1 can be ruled out so that leaves options 2 and 3. Which answers my question - yes, I am a spacker. :)

At least you learnt without more serious consequences.

once i was riding through the picadilly junction and my chain fell to the floor. scary ...

it can snap beacuse of too much tension

or if something nasty gets caught in it as you put the power down.

could have been a stone or a bit of metal, anything very small that jammed in and won the "who's the hardest" competition between it and your chain

"whos the hardest"<<<haaaa, i won that competion once

my chair got caught the other day when i was "putting the power down"(that should be on a spoke card) it fucked my knee over, it was twice the size. and i had a car up my arse.

You got a chair caught in your chain? What was the chair doing in the road? Or were you riding in your living room? What was twice the size? How did you manage to get the car out again? So many questions!!

i have no idea why i wrote chair,that is so wierd...i think i may of miss spelt CHAIN.....but the 'r' is nowhere near the 'n' oh my god

Last night on the way home my chain broke going down Park Lane, unsurprisingly, just a few minutes after I was wondering what the strange creaking noise was.
After a pints worth of time in the pub, fiddling with bits of metal from a keyring in an attempt to fudge a temp mend(Fail), I scooted the rest of the way home.
Props to the 3 guys who offered me help, especially the guy who offered to push me along for a bit.
So...is there a way to temp mend chains I could have tried? One of the side bits had apparently pinged off into Park Lane somewhere and taking a link out made it too short. Only had a multi-tool with me.

i think ive seen someone fix one with a spoke... but, that involves more tools/effort than its worth

If you can find the appropriate size screw/nail and ride slowly.

where would you get the spoke?

could carry a spare link if you felt so inclined...

TBH if you manage to break a chain, it should have been replaced 3 months prior.

where would you get the spoke?

could carry a spare link if you felt so inclined...

TBH if you manage to break a chain, it should have been replaced 3 months prior.

it involved them removing one of their own spokes.. and cutting it up.

like i say, too much effort.

carrying a spare split link isnt gonna weigh anything

Get a few power links, they cost not a lot and require no tools. unless you have a 1/8 chain, not sure if you can get power links for them.

My SRAM chain snapped when I was pulling away at a traffic light. It looks like one of the links has just been pulled until it snapped. It had been cleaned in the last month or so, and is only about 7/8 months old. I had heard a creak every now and then when out of the saddle going uphill etc. I can't think what could have caused it to snap as I checked for stiff links, and it was not under too high tension. The only things that come to mind are;

1. Teeth missing in chainring. Shouldn't cause damage to chain though, surely? It is a fairly old part, but the teeth are not wavy.
   
2. Chain tension: slightly slacker than perfect, but wouldn't have thought that coudl cause damage.
   
3. Chain line: Wheel was v slightly off centre between chain stays, but was riding fine with no tracking issues, and chain line looked OK.
   

shit luck

i used to hate it when this happened on my bmx as you would normally be going hell for leather and standing up which meant you were going strait over the handle bars or knees strait in them

My SRAM chain snapped when I was pulling away at a traffic light. It looks like one of the links has just been pulled until it snapped. It had been cleaned in the last month or so, and is only about 7/8 months old. I had heard a creak every now and then when out of the saddle going uphill etc. I can't think what could have caused it to snap as I checked for stiff links, and it was not under too high tension. The only things that come to mind are;
.

Once a week would be a better option; keeps it running better and you notice problems sooner.

probably right, but it wasn't much more dirty than the chain that appears as a banner at the top of this page. I'm sure it was user error though, so I couldn't justify doing a http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mIW1MAvyPD4.

Once a week would be a better option; keeps it running better and you notice problems sooner.

Tis true.

I strip my bike down to it's bearings around once a month and show it who is boss, besides giving it a good clean, making it run real smooth (MIRRS™) and making the parts last longer you get to spot any problems early. In fact my bike (minus frame and forks) is sat on my desk right now in lots of little bits.

(none of the above applies to Hippy, who chooses to clean his bike using the poorly understood 'let it rust' theory).

Chains snapping is never good.

probably right, but it wasn't much more dirty than the chain that appears as a banner at the top of this page. I'm sure it was user error though, so I couldn't justify doing a David Millar.

Ha !

I bet some mechanic got a right good shoeing that afternoon.

This is the offending chain in question (David Millar's, not James1822's)...

So I just picked up a load of wood samples from blackhorse road, probably 20kg worth. I took off up the hill, trying as usual to pull the 80.5 GI up the hill and make some speed over the junction with forest road and PING-POP! Sudenly my legs were spinning like mad, my chain had snapped and luckily I was able to slow down with my clamp on brake. I took to chain out of the bike and saw that the arms on one of the links had completely bend out allowing the pin to slip through and seperate from the rest of the chain. No damage to the bike or myself, I'm just pissed off.

So now I'm on the hunt for a new chain, I know there's kmc and izumi (I think) but not sure which one is bestest for the job.