Originally Posted by margoC

I asked the shop about the one time pin. These are some older bikes that have older chains and weren't ridden a lot before they sat in the garage. The chain on the specialized was fine, just a little gunk. I don't know what chains they are, I looked but couldn't tell.

The old mountain bike had too much rust on the chain for me to be comfortable with after I cleaned it. It was time for a new one.

The plier I got from Amazon, it was just called "bike link pliers" and came with an assortment of links.

My suspension is when I opened everything up all the links where in nearby piles and got mixed up. No problem, I should probably use a fresh one right?

It was hard keeping the chain straight so the links would line up. The pliers didn't want to spread, only go in maybe my technique? I didn't think of using the brake and spread the chain like that. I thought the pins should have been further through the side plates they looked flush.

I can go through all my gears just fine. My specialized has a 7 cog cassette, I think the mongoose has 7 as well. The spare links had 8, 9, and 10 on them but one group had no number, just a triangle.

I guess I am missing the part were these things are an improvement. Back when I was a serious rider I simply used a chain tool (and so did the shop I hung out at) and never had a single problem. Not one.

I'm not a roadie anymore but have finally accepted there are other ways to enjoy cycling. I have too many injuries to even consider taking riding a road bike but I've recently dusted off my non-road bikes and now that I've finally gotten used to riding in a position that at first wasn't natural for me I've been riding regularly. I doubt I will ever be able to ride 20 miles at a shot but my 5-10 miles have had an amazing therapeutic effect on my knees and the rest of my body.

I have no plans on riding anything other than mostly smooth surfaces, and the area I live in has a lot of good fun riding sections.

I want to convert the old mongoose hilltopper into something else. I got some great inspiration in that thread.

My point in that long diatribe is that I don't need a lot of performance components to make it work for me. Maybe I can avoid master links, at least for the time being. Maybe all link wrenches aren't the same and mine is crappy. Maybe I need to use a wire to keep the chain in place while I fiddle with it. I have horrible arthritic hands which doesn't make any of this easier.

The rear wheel on my specialized was not properly tensioned and was making tinking noises as I road, plus it was out of true pretty bad. I managed to fix it right up without even a trueing stand, I knew I could improve it but it's a perfectly true wheel now!

So I can true a wheel, fix a flat, and adjust the brakes. We'll see how far that gets me. My original plan was to drop them both off for tune ups but they are all behind a few weeks. I'm back to wrenching on my own bike.

Thanks to all for the help and suggestions. I will return to my master link battle eventually. I'm going to look into some higher quality links, the ones that came with my plyers might not be the best.