chain tension! whoops

[User19783]

Went out this morning, on my Surly stream roller, loving the ride, I cycle to Newbury from Abingdon, and on the way back, flying along the downs, I was going for it , just got to top speed, 30mph and my cadence just over 155, my chain wrapped itself around the the rear clog, locking up the rear wheel, I managed to hold upright, but, then I went down like a sack of spuds, , what fun,! after getting up feeling very silly, I checked out the bike,the chain was stuck ,Well I managed, to get chain out of the back wheel but with one broken spoke and well buckled, otherwise it was ok, managed to carry on.
I was very lucky, but I wish I checked that chain tension, not doing it has cost me , a new chain, lbs to replace spoke and straightened out the wheel, new leggings, new over shoes, and a new top.

Amway kept it fixed.

 

[biggs682]

oh dear no serious injuries to man or machine though

 

[User19783]

Just pride,

 

[HLaB]

That reminds me, the chain jumped of my bike the other day, I need to tighten the chain; it's a single speed though.

 

[wheres_my_beard]

Are you using chain tugs?

 

[User19783]

No, never have done,
But it's a good ideal,
Another item to my list.
Thanks.

 

[User19783]

Chain tugs,
I understand how there work on rear facing drop out's, but how I do the same on a forward drop out's?.

 

[wheres_my_beard]

With some tugs on some dropouts you can still use them, but it depends on the shape of both parts and whether the tugs can get a secure purchase on the rounded outer edge. Any tug that requires a bit of it to sit inside the dropout will be mostly useless, but something like this will probably be pretty secure:

You may need to file that little square down to make it a flush fit. They are On-One tugs I think.

 

[User19783]

Brilliant,

Thank you so much for your reply and photo's,
I will sort out my bikes by the weekend, as I don't the chain coming off again.

I will post some photos

Thanks

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Hmm, posts like this make me think twice about changing the way the chain is tensioned on my single speed - I've got vertical dropouts and use a crappy old durrileler durrailier dooralalala derailer dangly springy thing, and while it's ugly it does a marvellous job of keeping the chain under tension.

 

[Old Plodder]

Hmm, posts like this make me think twice about changing the way the chain is tensioned on my single speed - I've got vertical dropouts and use a crappy old durrileler durrailier dooralalala derailer dangly springy thing, and while it's ugly it does a marvellous job of keeping the chain under tension.

An old mech to tension a single speed is OK, chain should never jump off if you have it tensioned.
(Of course NEVER EVER try this with fixed.)(Just put that in, in case any noobie thought of trying.)

 

[fossyant]

Ow !

 

[clarion]

My Ridgeback World Tour Solo has track ends, but I haven't been able to find chaintugs to fit. When it was new, it had long grubscrews through from the front. Unfortunately, these were way too long, shook loose and fell out, and I don't know the thread. Does anyone? I tried old-fashioned dropout screws, but they were too narrow.

 

[PoweredByVeg]

My Ridgeback World Tour Solo has track ends, but I haven't been able to find chaintugs to fit. When it was new, it had long grubscrews through from the front. Unfortunately, these were way too long, shook loose and fell out, and I don't know the thread. Does anyone? I tried old-fashioned dropout screws, but they were too narrow.

If you want to find that thread size, try a drill bit in the hole, M4 is a 3.3mm tapping drill, M5 is a 4.2mm tapping drill and M6 is a 5mm tapping drill, a tapping drill is the size of drill the hole is drilled with before it's tapped.

 

[clarion]

That's handy information, thanks. I shall make a note of that and keep it.