smd4

Ferris Bueller, you’re my hero!

Kontact

Nothing wrong with doing so, except that chain length instructions for Shimano come with the derailleur, but SRAM come with the chain. If you buy a SRAM chain for your Shimano derailleur bike, which instructions?


The nice thing about knowing how bikes work is that you can choose options that are better than what the instructions say. At the shops I worked at we set the chain long if it caused no issues because it was better for the customers.

smd4

Obviously the derailleur. Because chain link lengths are so different.

Kontact

Obvious to everyone?

smd4

Your point was which instructions to use. If it isn’t obvious to “everyone,” then those people need to visit the bike shop.

Kontact

The problem we see in this forum, over and over, is that people don't know what they don't know. If you have a bike already and you buy a chain, the only instructions you're aware of are the ones in the chain package.

smd4

I guess. This is sort of the problem. You and I have both dealt with it. Bicycles are “simple” machines. Replacing a chain should be a simple matter.

Duragrouch

Even worse, you buy a Shimano chain and a SRAM rear derailleur, sounds like you get nothing! My 50/34 hollow spindle 2-piece crank came with zero instructions. Fortunately, I was able to find online, general torque specs for the external bearings and left arm clamp bolts, and the preload end cap had the torque spec molded into it.

Bought new car distributor on amazon, came with zero instructions. Thank goodness there was a great private video on youtube on how and where to use a paper clip to short the timing advance and then how to time it. These things used to be more straightforward. Newer cars have no distributor.

Kontact

They were simple devices. The current Shimano front derailleurs are anything but. And it isn't necessary.

In many ways, modern bikes are more problematic than the ones they replaced. But you get an extra cog and a half pound less bike.


But the easiest way to replace a chain is to just make the new chain the same length as the old one.

grumpus

That may be giving undue credit to the previous guy.

Kontact

The previous guy might have also installed gearing that has no correct chain length. My MTB chain is "too long", but I don't shift into those gears.

I was just speaking about replacing the chain on a working bike, not building a bike out of parts.

smd4

That’s why I’m curious as to how the OP arrived at this particular length. Did he measure it against the old chain? Maybe just eyeball it? It’s so short that I have a hard time understanding how this length was determined. With the OP AWOL, we may never know.

Yan 

It wasn't you FBinNY, it was kcjc.

Nope. I never argued for such a thing. That's revisionist history to hide your own humiliation.

You said chains should be sized based purely on small small. I and a bunch of others tried to explain to you that sizing a chain blindly on small small is a terrible idea because a mechanic cannot safely assume that every unknown bike's owner has installed a derailleur with sufficient capacity. It will damage the drivetrain and bike frame.

It went back and forth for a while but ultimately you were too unintelligent to understand, and insisted that sizing only based on small small was totally fine... And that's the hill you died on. A person like you had no business touching bikes.

Don't tell lies, dummy.

Yan 

You'll never read that debate because it's a fabrication that he just invented.

Yan 

That's a big assumption to make if you're working on an unknown bike.

It would be fine if you only ever work on your own bikes.

Kontact

Not really. Aside from many derailleurs having a fairly obvious capacity, you can check it simply by putting the amount of chain you've measured from small small on the Big Big before cutting. Pretty easy.

Yan 

Yeah, as long as you also check big big before install, it's fine.

The problem is that some people such as kcjc don't bother with this step.

Kontact

That is what you are claiming.

FBinNY 

Everything is simple for those who know. As Kontact pointed out, people don't know what they don't know.

kcjc

Enjoy, starts with post #11, https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...l#post23167036

You are not only mentally challenged but morally absent. Your whole BS was small/small technique would result in a chain that is too short, so stop pretending now others have joined in and point out your mistake. The community can judge for themselves as you cannot delete the thread or edit my responses that quote your replies. So are you going to cry to admin to purge the thread next?!
https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...hain-help.html

Yan 

Yes. That IS what I'm claiming. What are you going to do about it?

Maybe you have amnesia, but there was a multi page back and forth with that idiot last time on this exact topic.

Yan 

Yes, That's exactly the thread I'm talking about.

What's with the gaslighting? Are you a psycho or what? Anyone can read that thread and immediately notice that you're clueless. Check it out, direct quotes from our conversation in the thread you linked:

You think that if one blindly sizes based on small-small, then "at worst, you would end up with a chain that might be too long?" That's literally word for word what you said. It's right there in the quote.

You deny saying that? HELLO??? What kind of next level shameless psycho lying is this? Did you even bother to read the thread before you tried to gaslight everybody?

No, idiot. At worst would not be "end up with a chain that might be too long". At worst would be your derailleur snaps in half and your derailleur hanger is ripped off your frame.

And just to remove any doubt about how clueless you are, here you are later in the same thread arguing with other people who tried to tell you that it's a bad idea"


What's your next excuse, that it's the mechanic's fault for not first making sure the bike's components haven't been messed with?


"It wouldn't make a difference," he says. There goes that excuse.

Do everybody a favor, never touch a bicycle again in your life. This forum is going to the dogs more everyday with absolute amateur hack mechanics like yourself polluting the space with terrible incorrect posts. If you want to screw with your own stuff like an idiot, fine, but don't sabotage others and cause them to damage their bikes.

kcjc

Yes, that's a typo. You insisted small/small would result in a chain that is too short.
Yes. I recommend small/small as a chain sizing method, and you insisted that it was faulty because it would produce a chain that's too short and that would destroy the bike. I rejected your assertions, and you continued the argument by citing red herrings.
This is the exact opposite of your proposition in the threat, and now that others have found you faulty because you assert the same nonsense in this threat.
This deserves a second. It was your foundation argument for a chain that's too short, now it is also too long? Please tell us the last time you encountered a chain that was too long and snapped and ripped a derailleur hanger off a frame by itself?!
Projection, much?! Stay out of my lane, and I won't have to demonstrate your inadequacies publicly.

kcjc

You forgot to highlight your main proposition, which was found to be faulty in both threads.
Once again, you are mentally challenged and morally absent.

Yan 

What's a typo? Your post was a typo? I'm arguing with a typo? Oh my god....

You seem to think that I somehow suggested that small small would "always" result in a too short chain. Where in the freaking hell did I say "always"? Where is your reading comprehension???

What I said was:You see the word "but" in my first sentence? That's where A) and B) are separated. Why do I need to explain grade 3 English class grammar rules to you? Again, where is your reading comprehension? Do you mean to tell me that this entire argument originated from the fact that you don't know how to read?

What I said was A) it would work fine on a compatible drive train; however B) it wouldn't work on a mismatched drivetrain.

And since mechanics work on unknown bikes, it's too dangerous to blindly assume what the previous guy installed was compatible. The question is not whether you know what is compatible on YOUR OWN bike. The question is, as a mechanic working on unknown bikes, do you know what the PREVIOUS guy installed? No you don't know, so you'd better not blindly assume, because if you blindly assume wrong, then you'll damage the bike.

What's difficult to understand about this child level simple concept??? HELLO???


"It wouldn't make a difference," he says. Facepalm...