Chain breakages?

[Oaky]

Do they happen on fixed with a frequency that makes it worth carrying the wherewithal to fix them?

I realise that the chain is much less likely to break since it's not derailing (hopefully!) and so not undergoing the stresses that usually break chains on a geared machine.  Does shipping the chain on a fixed ever result in a broken chain?

On my geared bikes I carry a chaintool as well as appropriate powerlinks (and you can obviously get away with shortening the chain if required to get home, but in any case I also carry a few spare links trimmed from an over-long new chain that I can splice in with powerlinks if absolutely necessary too).

Should I think about carrying a few links of chain with me on the fixed too?  Is this something I'm likely to be able to get from the "LBS" from their spares bin -- do you usually end up with a few links spare when you fit a new fixed chain?  Or is that serious overkill?

[Deano]

I carry spare links and a chain tool (and have used them) - mainly because you're knackered without them.  You can't shorten the chain and make do like you would on a geared bike, so if your chain does go, you're walking.

I've got some spare links for a 1/8" chain you can have, if you like, but you may get lucky down the LBS.  Try one which does BMX parts.

[Oaky]

You can't shorten the chain and make do like you would on a geared bike, so if your chain does go, you're walking.

Yeah - that's the reason I started to think about it -- there's no way there's enough adjustment to absorb a pair of missing links and as you say, it's 24" gear time¹ if it does go.

I've got some spare links for a 1/8" chain you can have, if you like, but you may get lucky down the LBS.  Try one which does BMX parts.

Many thanks for the offer, unfortunately, I'm on 3/32 at the moment.

Cheers,
Mark

1. Although shouldn't that be either i(inside leg)", or somewhere between 24/pi and 32/pi" gear, depending on whether you go by the height above ground on the equivalent Ordinary, or the development of a typical stride converted to gear inches?  Mind you 7.6" gear is definitely on it's way to NSFW in short order.  The only thing that might get there quicker would be the 11.5" gear.

[Chris N]

Should I think about carrying a few links of chain with me on the fixed too?  Is this something I'm likely to be able to get from the "LBS" from their spares bin -- do you usually end up with a few links spare when you fit a new fixed chain?  Or is that serious overkill?

Like Deano, I always carry a few inches of spare chain just in case. Not needed to use it yet.

I reckon I've finally got enough leftover bits of chain to make a new one, so they're worth hanging on to.

[Greenbank]

Do they happen on fixed with a frequency that makes it worth carrying the wherewithal to fix them?

Never happened to me in 20,000km but I still always carry a few spare links of chain and a chain tool when riding on fixed.

The only time I've needed a chaintool on fixed is when I changed to a bigger sprocket on the second day of a 3 day ride and badly patched in a different make of chain with different length pins, it needed redoing 100km later when I noticed one of the sideplates wasn't even connected:-

http://www.greenbank.org/misc/le02.jpg

[Paul D]

The only time I've ever broken a chain was my SRAM 1/8" on the fixed, pulling off from some traffic lights up hill. Only broke one side plate though, so nursed it carefully to work and - as others have said - started carrying a couple of spare links in the seatpack. I have always had a chainsplitter on my multitool anyway.

Basically, on the risk assessment scale, a couple of links weigh nothing and as Deano says you're walking without them, so why wouldn't you carry them for anything other than trundling down the shops?

[itsbruce]

Now that I've had an interesting chain failure (collateral damage), I'll be buying a new one and definitely using the old one as a source of portable spare links.  So my overall resilience improves, to look on the positive.

[dave r]

Like most people here I carry a chain tool and some spare links, When I've fitted a new chain I've usually had to shorten it and its the spare links that have gone into the saddle bag. I've only broken a chain on a fixed once, a long time ago, about 1990. The chain in question was very old, worn and neglected. If the chain is newish, in good condition and well looked after its unlikely to break.

[border-rider]

I broke a chain for the first time in a *very* long time a couple of weeks ago, climbing up to the Gospel Pass from Hay.  Not the usual side-plate failure, but the rivet actually pulling clean out of the plate.  It was a very high-mileage chain though.

I did have the usual spare links to make a repair, but they were 1/8 and the chain on that bike is 3/32.  D'oh.

In fact it worked OK, and whilst I choose a flatter (and more populated) way home I had no troubles even on spinny descents with my hybrid chain.

[Oaky]

...
I did have the usual spare links to make a repair, but they were 1/8 and the chain on that bike is 3/32.  D'oh.

In fact it worked OK, and whilst I choose a flatter (and more populated) way home I had no troubles even on spinny descents with my hybrid chain.

That's very useful to know -- I was worried that even different models of 3/32 chain might be subtly incompatible when trying to splice links of one into another.