Originally Posted by bikerbobbbb

The new information/story....
So I'm riding today. I thought the chain skip/jump/slide thing was a little worse. I watched the chain a lot more, looking down at the front cog part. Squeezing the brakes seems to work well enough to keep the bike moving slow so it picks up the slack with whatever gear I'm in.
The chain would jump/move to the left on the front cog.
And when the larger/left side gears were used in the back, that did it more. That makes sense. There's more of an angle, so it ends up pulling the chain over on the front cog part a bit. If I kept my hand pressing the front shifter, it seemed to stay in place a little better.
So I'm watching the front cog groups... Then I see something. Black, maybe a piece of road tar caught in the chain. I saw a youtube video about chain inspecting. I was thinking something like road tar, a leaf (except it was black), or stiff links in the chain.
Not quite. While looking down at the chain from the top, the figure 8 link part was off a bit. Pieces still in tact -- left, right, and the little silver crosspiece. Every time that part of the chain came up, the front cog part would skip the chain a little. If the large/left cog in back was in place, that was enough to kick the chain over the left on the front cog, down onto a smaller cog there.
I finger-pushed the chain figure 8 piece on as best I could. Pedaled gently back. Tried to coast as much as possible.

Back at home, I was wishing I had that chain tool that forces the little silver cross piece in. But I don't have one.
Pliers didn't work so well. I figured I'd probably end up botching things up more if I didn't have the right tools. They worked as well as they could, and the chain is currently better than it was, but I don't trust it.
Pliers -- Squeezed the chain, figure 8 side pieces. At one point I heard a pop sound. The silver cross piece pushed out -- in the wrong direction... So then I had that little piece sticking out. When I moved the chain for a better position, that little amount sticking out caught waaay more in the rear shifting parts.
Tried pliers. Not much help.
Tried a hammer with a allen wrench to use the allen wrench end to tap just that silver cross piece in. Not much luck.
Stuck a block of wood behind the chain, twisted it a little (I was thinking this might bend the chain, which it may have a bit). Hammered the chain itself with a block of wood behind it. I figured the little silver piece sticking out might push in more with the figure 8 parts held by the wood. Soft wood... I ended up denting the wood with the chain.
And still the little silver crosspiece was sticking out. It did go in a bit, but moved back out when I squeezed the pliers on it. The right figure 8 would become flush, but the silver crosspiece wouldn't actually go through the whole thing farther.
So.... I didn't try it, but I thought the bike wouldn't be very ridable, and the chain was probably a bit useless and would have to be replaced....
I took a solid metal dumbbell instead of the block of wood. Hammered the chain against that.
And it seems to have worked. I pinched up the figure 8 parts a bit with pliers. It spins around the shifter parts fairly well now.
But it's a bit tight... It will bend smoothly with the curves for going around the front cog, if that makes sense. But if I bend the chain the opposite way, it's stiffer that way.
Good enough for now I figured. I'll be gentle with it, have less confidence in it. And I'll replace that.
Did a quick street test with it. It works better than earlier today. Still a skip now and then. I just don't trust it. And I don't want a botched up chain on my bike (not if it's a $15 repair). I think the chain could get seriously caught in the shifter stuff and mess up that stuff. Until I did the metal dumbbell hammering I was considering just parking the bike until I got a replacement chain.
Except I rely on the bike a bit. I wonder if I should get a spare chain now that I'm thinking of it....