[vtjim]

can "more than normal" chain suck be caused by too loose a chain? I replaced the chain in the fall and am getting more chain suck than I used to. There seems to be a bit of slack in the chain.

Should I remove a link in the chain?

 

[eaterofdog]

To set the length of your chain, set the front and back to the largest gears. These would be the highest gear in the front and the lowest gear in the back. Your chain should have just a little slack, i.e. the rear derailler should be close to, but not quite horizontal. You should not be able to push it down and touch the chainstay. If you still have a lot of slack, you will need to remove a link.

DO NOT shorten the chain too much. If you do and then you shift into the big gears I mentioned before, bad things will happen to your bike.

 

[vtjim]

To set the length of your chain, set the front and back to the largest gears. These would be the highest gear in the front and the lowest gear in the back. Your chain should have just a little slack, i.e. the rear derailler should be close to, but not quite horizontal. You should not be able to push it down and touch the chainstay. If you still have a lot of slack, you will need to remove a link.

DO NOT shorten the chain too much. If you do and then you shift into the big gears I mentioned before, bad things will happen to your bike.

Yeah, that's how I set chain length in the first place, so maybe I won't remove a link. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Toshi]

Did you just replace the chain? Might need a new cassette and chainring(s), too

 

[vtjim]

Did you just replace the chain? Might need a new cassette and chainring(s), too

Yeah, honestly it probably does need these things, especially the rear cassette. I guess that will be the next thing.

 

[DownCycles_Stef]

To set the length of your chain, set the front and back to the largest gears. These would be the highest gear in the front and the lowest gear in the back. Your chain should have just a little slack, i.e. the rear derailler should be close to, but not quite horizontal. You should not be able to push it down and touch the chainstay. If you still have a lot of slack, you will need to remove a link.

DO NOT shorten the chain too much. If you do and then you shift into the big gears I mentioned before, bad things will happen to your bike.

This is true for all hard tail frames, but with full suspension bikes you will almost always need to leave some extra length for chain growth through the suspension. The way I prefer to setup chains is set your gears to smallest front ring, smallest back ring, make sure your cage length is correct (short for one cog, short/med for two cogs, med/long for three cogs) and then make the chain short enough so there is just a little tension being applied to the cage.

Obviously you can go shorter than this, but by setting it up this way, you'll almost always have good shifting and you won't have any length problems.

 

[w00dy]

chain suck (the chain failing to free itself from the front chainring) is typically a result of the front chainring being worn.

With the careful use of a file you can sometimes remove metal barbs from your worn chainring's teeth and salvage it, or you could just pony up the dough and replace the thing.

 

[unskilled]

chains do stretch over time, if you have some free time go to a shop and use their chain checker tool to see if your chain is worn out and stretched. if you do a lot of riding it is possible you wore it out already. it is probably something else tho if it is constantly droping. what gear ratio drops the most?