Chain length and the affects it has

millster

If I shortened my chain, would it have any good/bad affects on, for example gear shifts?

ride_whenever

you might snap the rear dérailleur and or mech hanger and write off a wheel. It depends on how short you are running it. It should help prevent chainslap abit but shouldn't affect gear changes much,

robbiemagic

You have to make sure that your chain is the correct lenght, thus not too short and not too long. I measure this by feeing the chain through the front mech, round the largest chainring and largest rear gear bypassing the rear mech, then add two chain links to that length and that is the ideal chain length!

supersonic

I'd go with that!

stubs

I had to take a link out of a chain whilst out on a ride and it completely knackered my gear changes and I could only use the middle gears on the cassette

redvee

In my experiences with bad shifts I trieed all sorts, new cables, cable tension over the space of a few days then I added a link to the chain and all sorted.

millster

robbiemagic my friend, you are magic! done your method, took two links out (and added a powerlink, what a great invention), and hey presto my gear shifts are so much smoother! ace

BlackSpur

Guy at the shop says he does it by going smallest to smallest on the cassette/chainrings, and getting about a 1cm gap from the top jockey whel to the chain. I think it was that anyway!

supersonic

Works well too as chain can never go fully slack, but have to be careful. Opposite end is if its a short cage mech, and have a 34T and triple for example you may have probs ;-)

I always find the best way is to make sure that the chain can always go round the the biggest two cogs as this causes the most damage if wrong.