There comes a time when your chain has to be replaced, If your chain looks like this you know its time to get out the overalls and get at it.

So you have bought yourself a new chain and sprocket set. I have bought a smaller front by one tooth and a bigger rear by two teeth.

time to get the tools together.

This is what you will need

An Angle grinder, googles

Tool breaker set

screwdriver

Ratchet (depending on bike)

8mm, (Front sprocket cover)

14mm,(Front sprocket bolt)

17mm,(Rear hub sprocket bolt)

22mm. (Rear Axle)

spanners

10mm, 12mm (Rear axle adjusters)

Torque wrench

Long metal Bar

STEP 1

Remove Front sprocket cover. Put bike in gear and maybe even the metal bar through the rear wheel to stop it moving. Loosen the front Sprocket but dont remove it yet.

STEP 2

Fire up the angle grinder, and shave off the nobs on one of the chain links.

STEP 3

Get your screw driver and hammer it into the chain pushing the front plate off the link, this will effectively break the chain.

STEP 4

Remove the back wheel, and remove the rear sprocket. Use your metal bar if you are a weakling!

Leave the rear adjuster bolts tight, you want to be able to put the wheel back in the same place you have it now.

Put your new sprocket on. Be sure to use your torque wrench on these bolts, over torqueing them can result in shearing the rear bolts and lots of ugliness. (Been there done that!)

STEP 4a

If you aren’t swapping the front sprocket you will now attach the new chain to the old with some wire and feed it through and over the front sprocket. You can chuck the old chain now.

STEP 5

If you aren’t sure how many links you want then don’t pre-cut your chain. Put your rear wheel back on and lay the chain around it. check the lengths of your chain and find where you want to cut it. If you want to lenghten your wheel base or shorten it now is the time to decide. It is always better to err on the side of long, as it is easier to remove links that add them in case you got it wrong.

STEP 6

Grind off the nob on the excess chain links.

Now its time to get your chain breaker into action.

line it up with this cofiguration and use an allen key to push the link bolt out.

There is actually a longer spike than this one in my set that was a little better to use.

STEP 7

Prepare your joining link, putting the rubber washers in place. It is always best to have a few spares of these joiners in case you mess up.

STEP 8

Join your chain,

lay the two ends on your rear sprocket, place the joiner through careful not to drop the rubber washers in the dirt. place the front plate on your joining link and prepare your chain joiner like this.

The two silver spikes hold the front plate in place. It is screwed in with an allen key. The plate provides a flat pressure on the front of the joiner link and forces it onto the joiner spikes.

Here is where you must take care, take your time, go slowly be careful not to over tighten it. You can check the space by comparing with the surrounding links. This may mean you tighten then remove to check a few times.

When you are finished it should look like this.

You are almost done…

STEP 9

Now you must reassemble the chain breaker, to turn out the spike ends to ensure the front plate doesn’t desert your bike in a time of need.

so it must look like this…

These balls will splay the ends, they operate individually. Care must be take with them to not overtighten again as they can push the front plate further in. the result will be a stiff chain and that can cause troubles.

There we are, all done. Get some chain cleaner onto the chain as the grease is nasty. Tighten your axle bolts. check the torques on your front sprocket and put the cover back on.

All finished, take it for a blast to make sure it is all ok. You may get a small amount of chain stretch over the first little while so you may have to retighten the chain at some point.

Talking about chain tautness. I always err on the loose side. The bottom side should be able to touch the bottom of the swing arm. Not to easily but without too much force either.

So I took it for a blast, and it was low wheelies effortlessly pulling away from lights. the wheel to swingarm pivot has gone from 60cm to about 61.2 cm.

That will weight the front a little more helping turn in, it should also add a little mid corner and exit stability at the expense of grip.

The reason why I added rear teeth and lost front teeth, is to allow me to stay in second gear in the tighter corners. SO I should be able to stay out of first on all mountain roads now.

one last pic.

the chain breaker with all its parts…