Chain guard completely closed. Chain has come off. Help!

[Cyclopathic]

I'm working on a bike called a Pearl City bike. It's a low budget strumy archer 3 speed and looks to have been made in the last 10 years or so.

The chain has come off and I can find no way into the chain guard, which is sealed except for the small part at the back end that does come off to allow access to the rear wheel bolts.

I have been at it for about an hour and a half and cannot find a way to take the chain guard off at all. It encases the chain entirely and has a sealed seam all the way around it.

There is one bracket holding it on that can be reached but this attaches the whole thing and does not allow access when taken off.There is another bracket which cannot be undone because the nuts hoding it on are inside, as if they were put on prior to the whole chain being entombed.

Any ideas?

 

[sittingbull]

Photos would be helpful. My only experience with an enclosed chain guard was on a Raleigh Superbe.

From memory there was one sliding section about the size of a matchbox on the case adjacent to the drive side crank, this slid off with a little persuasion, then the dinner-plate sized panel concealing the chain ring could be prised off and slid over the crank arm, with the crank arm passing through the gap left by the previously removed matchbox sized section.

If it is truly sealed, and I can see no benefit in manufacturing it in such a way, then you have little option other than to cut it off.

Hopefully someone will have more relevant experience.

 

[Garethgas]

I wonder if it might be held by those pesky invisible clips?
You know...the ones they have on car interiors that you can never see?
Sometimes, all they need is a sharp tug in the right place. (Quiet in the back there)
Or possibly some plastic locking tabs that you pry off one by one until the cover is off.
Or even the whole thing slides up/back/forward?
There's bound to be a way

 

[tyred]

Is there no pop-off "pie plate" behind the crank? Traditionally, it popped off like a paint tin lid and after removing the crank, there was a single bolt just behind the bb. If not, I would go with the hidden clip idea as it's difficult to see how it could have been manufactured otherwise with the chainwheel inside it.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

deleted my previous post when I read @tyred's and realised the inherent daftness of my suggestion.

More water with it next time I think