Chain scraping against Chain Case?

[gsummerton]

Hello all, I’ve just joined in frustration from not being able to fix my bike myself, and am hoping someone on here can help me. I apologise for the lengthy post, but have tried to give as much info as possible. I really don’t want the hassle of having to take my bike to a mechanic, as I don’t drive so find it difficult to do this anyway, but would really like to learn how to do this myself!

I have a Halfords Real Classic ladies bike, which was bought for me a year and a half ago. I like it a lot and didn’t have any problems with it until I got my first puncture recently. Since then I have had nothing but problems! Unfortunately the bike did not come with any kind of manual and I cannot find any information online about maintenance on it. Up until I got this bike I had been riding various second hand mountain bikes, and have always been perfectly capable of removing wheels and changing tyres/repairing punctures myself without having to take the bike to a mechanic, but I have very little knowledge of how to fix any other part!

This bike has a Sturmey Archer 3-speed gear hub which is part of the back wheel. I had no idea how to go about removing this kind of wheel so enlisted the help of someone else who is a keen cyclist and has more technical know-how than me, but he had no experience of it either! Together, with much cursing and messing about, we managed to get the wheel off, I changed the inner tube, and we somehow managed to get it back on. Since then it has not felt right at all, so I’m guessing that something about the way in which we removed and replaced the wheel has upset the way it was set up in the first place.

The gears are now ok, after fiddling with them a lot they shift up and down ok and feel normal. I cycle along and it all feels ok, but it is making horrible noises which sound like the chain is scraping against the bottom of the chain case. The chain also rattles against the case alarmingly when I go over the slightest bump in the road. It has an enclosed chain case, the casing goes all the way around the chain and sprockets, so I can’t really see what’s going on. It also looks like in order to take this off I’d have the remove nearly every part of the back end of the bike!

The narrowest end of the chain case is removable to give you access to the chain. We found that after loosening the axel nuts on both sides of the wheel, the chain was in the way of sliding the wheel out, so we had to hook it off the smaller sprocket before the wheel would come off. We really struggled to get the chain back on again, and so I am wondering if in this process we’ve loosened the chain somehow?

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of bike and can deduce what the issue is? Is there some way of tightening the chain up? I’m guessing I’m going to have to take the damn thing apart again! Many thanks in advance

 

[Mattonsea]

Honestly I would make friends with your local bike shop. They we help you out, charge a pittance and be glad of your custom.

 

[GrasB]

Sounds like there's not enough chain tension to stop the chain touching/slapping against the chain case.

You really need someone who knows how to do these things to show you what needs to be done when taking the wheel off the bike. Giving instructions on-line will need pictures as depening on how everything is layed out on your bike effects the procedure you need to follow.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Chances are you haven't got the wheel back on straight, I would loosen the back wheel and re-drop it back into the frame before taking it to the local bike shop

 

[KHolmes1990]

Hello all, I’ve just joined in frustration from not being able to fix my bike myself, and am hoping someone on here can help me. I apologise for the lengthy post, but have tried to give as much info as possible. I really don’t want the hassle of having to take my bike to a mechanic, as I don’t drive so find it difficult to do this anyway, but would really like to learn how to do this myself!

I have a Halfords Real Classic ladies bike, which was bought for me a year and a half ago. I like it a lot and didn’t have any problems with it until I got my first puncture recently. Since then I have had nothing but problems! Unfortunately the bike did not come with any kind of manual and I cannot find any information online about maintenance on it. Up until I got this bike I had been riding various second hand mountain bikes, and have always been perfectly capable of removing wheels and changing tyres/repairing punctures myself without having to take the bike to a mechanic, but I have very little knowledge of how to fix any other part!

This bike has a Sturmey Archer 3-speed gear hub which is part of the back wheel. I had no idea how to go about removing this kind of wheel so enlisted the help of someone else who is a keen cyclist and has more technical know-how than me, but he had no experience of it either! Together, with much cursing and messing about, we managed to get the wheel off, I changed the inner tube, and we somehow managed to get it back on. Since then it has not felt right at all, so I’m guessing that something about the way in which we removed and replaced the wheel has upset the way it was set up in the first place.

The gears are now ok, after fiddling with them a lot they shift up and down ok and feel normal. I cycle along and it all feels ok, but it is making horrible noises which sound like the chain is scraping against the bottom of the chain case. The chain also rattles against the case alarmingly when I go over the slightest bump in the road. It has an enclosed chain case, the casing goes all the way around the chain and sprockets, so I can’t really see what’s going on. It also looks like in order to take this off I’d have the remove nearly every part of the back end of the bike!

The narrowest end of the chain case is removable to give you access to the chain. We found that after loosening the axel nuts on both sides of the wheel, the chain was in the way of sliding the wheel out, so we had to hook it off the smaller sprocket before the wheel would come off. We really struggled to get the chain back on again, and so I am wondering if in this process we’ve loosened the chain somehow?

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of bike and can deduce what the issue is? Is there some way of tightening the chain up? I’m guessing I’m going to have to take the damn thing apart again! Many thanks in advance

Hi GSummerton,

I've just signed up to this website to try and find a solution to the exact same problem with my Real Classic ladies bike from Halfords!

I've had my bike for a couple of years now but I've barely been able to ride it for the last 12 months because the noise of the chain scraping across the chain case was so loud that I was embarrassed to ride it down the street! Luckily, before I was in a position was I was able to walk to uni but am now starting my first job and need to be able to use the bike I paid good money for!

I took the bike into Halfords twice, both times they kept it in overnight and tightened various things to try and get more tension on the chain. This lasted not much longer than the ride home from the store before the noise came back. They also replaced the bike like-for-like with the same model - but the noise struck again.

Today I picked the bike up after leaving it with a local independent bike shop for a couple of days. They had tightened some stuff around the back wheel (I'm not an expect - sorry) and looked at the chain also - this lasted for a little while but I took it out on a long ride tonight to test it and the noise came back after about 5km.

Just wondering, gsummerton, did you ever find a solution to this problem? The bike is not way out of warranty and I just heartily regret not taking the damn refund when I had the chance and buying something a little more expensive that wouldn't cause me these problems!

And if anyone else out there is reading - I'm desperate for solutions so any help would be fantastic!

 

[fossyant]

It's not chain rub - it's a Sturmey 3 speed. It's most likely the casing has been knocked towards the chain - these things are bolted to the frame and can be adjusted. They can also be 'adjusted' by a little force if particular bits are catching. First check the chain isn't slack - the wheel may need pulling back slightly if there is significant sag in the chain. Find out where it is catching - best done by looking at the rear of the casing from the non drive side.

It's not a big issue to fix, just some bad adjustment or folk with absolutely no know how. Happened with a colleagues Specialized Globe, I just adjusted the chain guard.

 

[Globalti]

Yes, Fossy's right. Just re-loosen the back wheel bolts and pull the wheel backwards while re-tightening against the tension of the chain. A normal human hand pull ought to leave the chain tensioned enough that it won't run on the bottom of the chain case causing that clatter.

This sounds simple but sometimes tightening the axle nuts can cause the wheel to go out of alignment. The best way to deal with that is to loosen and tighten on alternating sides while "walking" the wheel backwards by wiggling it from side to side, if you see what I mean. Using this method you can achieve a much tighter chain but that might actually be too tight and might cause other noises. You might be able to see where the wheel nuts used to reside by the witness marks in the paint on the dropout.

Once you've got the wheel centred in the rear triangle with sufficient tension in the chain, replace that barrel thingy on the right hand side and refit the little gear changer chain then adjust the length so as to get the gears indexed. It's all pretty simple stuff and just requires a little mechanical "feel" to get right. You certainly can't break or damage anything so keep fiddling with it until you get it right.

Again, Fossy's right: if adjusting the wheel doesn't stop the noise, a little judicious bending of the chain case mounts might help.

The important thing with this kind of fettling is to approach it in the right frame of mind. If you try to do it in a hurry or somewhere noisy and busy, you'll just get frustrated and annoyed. Do it when you feel calm and relaxed and you've got a nice glass of G&T or Pimms to hand, take your time, think it through and you'll be delighted when you get it sorted.

Edit: my Mum is 84 and loves cycling; she has made friends with some burly blokes who run a Harley Davidson motorbike shop in her village so whenever she has a bike problem she just drops in there with a packet of biscuits of a six pack of beer and they fix it for her for free.

 

[Globalti]

And if anyone else out there is reading - I'm desperate for solutions so any help would be fantastic!

I wish you were in my neck of the woods in Lancashire; I'd come round and fix it in exchange for a glass of beer. There's nothing that can't be repaired on a bicycle if you take the time to work it out. Quite often bike shop staff don't have the time or the experience to investigate and get to the cause of a problem like yours.

 

[Sham69]

Agree with all the above posts about possible causes and fixes.

FWIW, my money is on incorrect chain tension - too slack I'd guess. I run an internal hub-geared bike (SRAM iMotion9) that has no chain tensioner and can vouch that getting the chain tension just right when resetting the rear wheel in the dropouts can be a frustrating process. Globalti's suggested method of chain tensioning has worked for me. Persevere, you'll get there.