Could have been worse.

I discovered something interesting yesterday.

While riding to an appointment, I noticed that some awful noise started emanating from the engine. At about the same time I heard a really loud clunkorbang!, the bike started losing speed. I could rev it up, and tried shifting gears, but nothing seemed to help. I coasted into a parking place, and tried to figure out what was wrong. I thought I had broken a shift fork or something, because no gear would engage to move me. It didn't take long, until I realized that I wasn't going anywhere, until I got the chain back on.

Sure enough, I had shed the chain about a quarter mile away, so off I went, happy to find the only problem with my 29-year-old derelict mistress was the chain my iron maiden had decided to puke. I guess the cards I got dealt were more favorable than they could have been. A beautiful, sunny day, no sudden emergencies foisted upon me by fate; no high-speed sprocket lockup, no broken cases, no skidding tires from an errant chain, now recovered. A call to the appointment yielded a helpful ride from the one I was supposed to meet with. So that worked out in more ways than one.

Evventually, I was able to locate another master link for an o-ring 530 chain, and this is where I got my education. Turns out there is a step that somehow got overlooked when this little freak got installed originally. Ignorance can be expensive, but for me, not today.

Because this was/is a spring clip installation, the cover link has to be press-fitted to the pinlink. Maybe it has something to do with the side loading an o-ring chain creates. The last master link cover plate on this chain was a slip fit, which was inadequate as I found out by the mechanic who educated me. I have always used spring clip links, and have never had a problem with a slip fit cover, but I learned that unless they are press fitted with a tool like a vise-grip plier, they present a risk to a rider of spontaneous dismantling, with perhaps tragic results. I am so grateful that I lived through this experience in a way that allows me to share lesson learned with others.

Post edited by: KaZooCruiser, at: 2007/03/08 16:36

No point in doin' something dumb unless you learn from it! And sharing it makes your mistake twice as valuable!

Yep.
When you have to remove the master link, say, to replace the chain, that press fit plate can be a challenge. I got mine off by slipping the thin blade of my Swiss Army Knife under the plate and slowly prying it up. First one side, then the other. Finally, I could get a thin flat-tip screwdriver blade in there, and I could get some leverage until it came free. Putting on the new new plate goes pretty easy if you have a pair of vise grips. Work it down, one side at a time.
Don't forget, the clip has to be installed with the closed end going in the direction of chain movement. If you install it with the open end going forward, then it might catch on someting, and get ripped off.

From the *Who'd a thunk it?* file:

Another item to keep an eye on when fussing with master link type chains...

Going down the road some time back, heard a "...tic-tic-tic..." coming from the lower left rear. Pulled off to the side to find a missing spring clip on the master ling. Put on a spare and got home.

Pulled the link later and looked at it close. Instead of the clip channel being approriately deep with squared edges, it was shallow and champhered like the "bad" side in the adjoining p-chop:



Prolly a 1-in-100,000 manufacturing defect - my guess is a dull tool and lousy QC in whatever 3rd World plant the link was made in, and you may not ever see one like it - but it's a 30 second eyeball check just to make sure when installing a master link.

Another thing I've taken to doing after installing the clip, I wipe the outer plate and clip with a thinner rag, then take a little white enamel on the ragged end of a paper match and paint the clip - makes it a 2 second check to make sure it's still there when lubing the chain...

The chain I have on my bike now came with a master link.
It is the standard type master link with a press on outer plate and a retaining clip, but it had a little piece of very thin metal painted red with it also, i did not know what it was for until somebody told me..

It goes between the retaining clip and the outer plate( the retaining clip keeps it on) and gets folded over the outside of the clip as a quick visual reference that the clip is still there. So now before riding, just a quick look at the chain, if the red is there, the clip is in place, if it is not the clip is gone and its only a matter of time before the master link will come apart and you will have a bad day.. I broke a chain a few years ago, luckly I was just leaving my street and going pretty slow, the master link came apart...

1045

Glad you weren't hurt, and everything turned out all right!

that press fit saves your butt. a buddy had the clip come off on a brand new chain. because of the press fit the link was still there and he safely made it home. after that i made sure i always use a rivet type link. it gives me a whole lot more peice of mind knowing that the plate will not physically come off unless the pins are pressed out.