Chain Catchers

in Road general
Do they actually work?
I have a Canyon chain catcher that attaches under the bottle cage mounts on the seat tube & threw my chain yesterday going from big to small. The chain got well & truly jammed in between the chain catcher & the chainring so much so I had to break it, take the chain off completely & reattach it with a quick link.
I thought the whole point of them was (apart from protecting your frame around the BB if the chain goes onto it) that it would guide your chain back onto the chainring so it doesn’t come off in the 1st place.
I like the idea of them as a bit of insurance & was thinking about getting a K-Edge or something similar that attaches to the front mech but the way it’s positioned is the same so can’t see how it would be any better. If it’s as much use as the Canyon might as well not bother.
I have a Canyon chain catcher that attaches under the bottle cage mounts on the seat tube & threw my chain yesterday going from big to small. The chain got well & truly jammed in between the chain catcher & the chainring so much so I had to break it, take the chain off completely & reattach it with a quick link.
I thought the whole point of them was (apart from protecting your frame around the BB if the chain goes onto it) that it would guide your chain back onto the chainring so it doesn’t come off in the 1st place.
I like the idea of them as a bit of insurance & was thinking about getting a K-Edge or something similar that attaches to the front mech but the way it’s positioned is the same so can’t see how it would be any better. If it’s as much use as the Canyon might as well not bother.
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The Deda dog fang type work well but don't usually work with carbon frames, just steel or ti frames where the seat tube is the same width all the way down.
They are cheap and weigh very little, and imo worth fitting.
Pretty much exactly my experience yesterday. I’ve taken it off now.
Front mech is set up fine, complete user error on my part, misjudged a climb & thought I could get up it in the big ring, couldn’t & chose to change gear at the wrong time.
That’s not really my point though, just wondered if anyone had dropped their chain & the catcher did what it’s supposed to do?
Mine was set up literally within a hairs breadth of the chain when on small ring & largest cog at the back but somehow the chain got twisted & some of it got caught at the pointy end of the catcher & was jammed solid.
Still can’t work out how.
I can’t see how it could be set up incorrectly in all honesty.
As above it was extremely close to the chain in the lowest gear but still didn’t work & in fact made the problem even worse.
I will certainly take some of the blame for the poor choice of when to change gear but still think it should do better than it did.
I had the catcher set up as close as possible without touching. There may have of course been other occasions where it had done its job as intended.
That said, I never put the chain catcher back on. My gears were subsequently tweaked by my LBS and I've never dropped the chain since.
It can’t be any worse!
I think this is what’s happened to mine. I can’t see how the chain would get past it otherwise.
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/k-edge-road-clamp-chain-catcher/
That's the one that clamps to the frame rather than attached to the front mech but either will do I guess.
The one you have will certainly be easier to fit as you don't have to mess about with the front mech which isn't my strong point.
Cheers mate.
Will have to have a think as I'm not best friends with chain catchers at the minute!
Easty commuter
Tripster AT