Out with Badger and Yoda

Tag : passing link chain

If it's a Wednesday, it's likely that I may be out in Leeds woods,if the missus has given me an evening out pass. Last Wednesday itwas a quick 2 hour hack round the ever drying singletrack withBadger and Yoda.
Before you ask, no, I haven't been sampling the local fungi! Thenicknames have been long established and it's far too complicatedto explain them here...Suffice to say it was just the 3 of us. EdCrosstrax, our usual leader on these escapades, had cried off withman flu, but had 'kindly' giving my Yeti a check over whilst in theshop, declaring that he'd 're-aligned' my gears that had beenslightly out of sync...
Not long into the ride, said gears started slipping and missing,and I started cursing Ed under my breath for 'correcting' them⬦aswe hit a particularly steep tarmac climb the skipping got worse,and I signalled to Badger and Yoda that I needed to stop, loudlydeclaring to them that Ed had totally 'fecked my gears up!" and, asif to prove my point, the chain then snapped in two!
But on close inspection it turned out to be a knackered link, notEd's tinkering that had been the problem. Badger and Yoda ribbed memercilessly, saying that Ed was probably sitting at home with avoodoo doll of my bike, and snapped the chain for questioning hismechanical skills in public!
More ribbing came, as I admitted that I had no idea how to mend abroken chain, along the lines of "you write for What Mountain Bikeand BikeRadar, and can't even fix a broken chain!?"
After a minute or so of this, Badger and Yoda jumped into MontyPythonesque Bicycle Repair man mode⬦Badger got out hismulti-cum-chain tool and a rather nifty bit of spoke, bent ateither end (like fish hooks), that he used to hold the chainloosely together as a third hand, whilst removing the knackeredlink and replacing it with a Powerlink.
It takes a steady hand, a keen eye and confidence to split thechain without the pin coming out completely⬦it is something thatI will need to practice and learn if I am to perfect it myself. AsYoda says, "correct amount of force, it takes," just enough to easeit through, without popping out and losing the pin.
The moral of the story - it is about time I learnt to do more to mybike that mend punctures (I can do that, honest!). In the meantime,there's something reassuring about going out cycling with thosethat can fix your bike, otherwise it's a long walk home!
Want to see a video tutorial on breaking and joining a Shimanochain? See the video player below.