Number of chain links needed please

Keithc

Hi,

My road bike is a Cube Agree GTC. 41.5cm chainstay length

My existing set up is: Shimano Ultegra 11 speed:

Front 50/34 - Rear 11-28. I have a short cage rear mech, There are 106 pins in the chain which I assume is 53 whole links?

My new set up is: Shimano Ultegra 11 speed:

Front 50/34 - Rear 11-32. Medium cage mech.

My question is: how many pins or whole links will I need in my new chain?

Please make the answer simple, I have looked on lots of sites about this and am completely baffled by the science!. All I really need is a number.

Many thanks for your time and help.

drlodge

Put the chain on the bike and see what length you need.
Either
- place it on small-small and make the chain as long as possible with some tension and the rear derailleur just under tension; or
- on big-big with the chain as short as possible and the rear derailleur still giving the chain some "bend" in it.

I would guess removing 8 half links / 4 full links would be about it, but theory and practice are two different things.

drlodge

http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/b ... hcalc.html says 54 links, which is 108 half links, so one full link more than your current chain. New chains are I think 114 links, so remove 6.

Keithc

Many thanks for your help and advice.

ElectronShepherd

Bear in mind that new chains come in several different lengths, so have a check and/or count before simply removing eight links.

sungod

Keithc wrote:

...
Please make the answer simple, I have looked on lots of sites about this and am completely baffled by the science!. All I really need is a number.
...

there's only one site that counts: the manufacturer's

you set the chain length the way shimano tells you to set it...

http://si.shimano.com/php/download.php? ... 08-ENG.pdf

for the cassette you describe, see page 10