Stuck Chainring Bolts on New Bike
 

Run into something I've never seen before. I'm trying to replace a chainring on a new track bike I got today but the male (5mm hex) part of the chainring bolts are all threaded so far into the female part of the chainring bolts that my park tool CNW-2 is unable to engage on them. As such all of the bolts just spin rather than backing out.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=390409

Anyone know of any tricks?

try holding the bolt with a hex wrench and use a punch or screwdriver the loosen the nut (female portion). you should be able to give both the slots a couple of good whacks before it becomes so destroyed as to prevent further attempts. then i'd just punt and drill it out, i guess.

i won't be surprised if somebody has a better suggestion ... :lol:

you might even attempt to file down the too high middle part to give your removal tool a better purchase. it's pretty hard stuff though.

The hook spanners made to engage the 2 nut slots are very inexpensive , buy one. it's made in sturdy enough sheet metal.

or, bodge up a wide enough flat blade screwdriver , cut deeper to clear the end of the sleeve bolt.

5mm allen wrench on the front side ..

Other wrenches might be able to engage the notches, or you can make your own with a piece of scrap sheet. It doesn't need to be very strong, as it's only meant to hold the nut, not tightening it.

File deeper slots in the tool you have?

+100

i just looked at the cheap stamped and bent POS the guy, god love him :), at the LBS gave me a couple of years ago. it's soft, thin steel, easily filed, and could give maybe 2mm more clearance.

good idea :thumb:. it wouldn't have hurt to have been made with that much clearance in the first place.

I say just drill them out and replace them with TruVativ steel chainring bolts. They are 6mm hex on one side and 5mm hex on the other. They come with spacers to be used for single speed cranks.

Once I realized a SRAM crank I bought had this type of bolt, I bought them for all my bikes and never looked back.

Amazon.com : TruVativ Steel Chainring Bolt Set, Black : Bike Chainrings And Accessories : Sports & Outdoors

Well, after bringing them to a shop that had a different chainring bolt tool and having the mechanic there give up on them as well I drilled all 5 of the bolts out and replaced them. Here's hoping that I can get some kind of warranty compensation out of this. Tedious job.

glad it worked out. and i'll bet that was a tedious job! :lol:

i might check out those chainring bolts (compliments of Eric S.) with hex heads on both sides. sounds like a good idea to me. wonder if there is any problem with them. i say that because it seems to be such a good idea and yet i've never seen them before.

The chainring bolts with hex heads on both sides are pretty common on double cranksets, but I think the issue with a single speed is that the space taken up by the second hex interface would reduce the amount of thread engagement that would be possible (hence the spacers).