Kmc quick link

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mark st1

Plastic Manc
Location
Leafy Berkshire
Cant get the little fecker undone ! Had a few and the others have popped open easily from pinching them together. The latest one however doesn't want to budge ! Any ideas on a tool I can use without breaking the thing ?
 

Tim Hall

Guest
Location
Crawley
Roadside fix is to put the chain on the big ring skipping a tooth so the quick link sticks out. Twat it with a rock or similar implement and it will pop open.
 
Location
Loch side.
The most likely cause is dirt between inner and outer plates. These links have to be compressed perpendicular to the chain line and then, in-line. If it is dirty, the first action cannot be completed and they won't open. Wiggle (articulate) the link a bit to try and get some of the dirt out.
 
Location
Loch side.
I haven't no. I've always thought what a brilliant invention squeeze it wriggle back and forth and it pops open. This one however just doesn't want to know.

You are so right. They were designed to be opened without tools and in fact, the tool in question damages the link. Unfortunately every now and again a link doesn't want to co-operate. Then one can use a diagonally-applied pair of ordinary pliers to persuade it.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
How do they damage the link? I've been using them, albeit infrequently, for years.
 
Location
Loch side.
[QUOTE 4864358, member: 45"]So it's not the tool that's the problem but the improper use of it?[/QUOTE]

Yes, but when you use the tool to open the link whilst squeezing the two plates together, it pinches and removes skin off your fingers. I am yet to find one of these tools that comes with proper instructions on how to avoid damage to the links. I assume they don't publish details because they would then have to cope with skinned fingers.
 
Location
Loch side.
[QUOTE 4864356, member: 9609"]I use the tool to take the chain off about every week and I ain't damaged one yet, I love the system really quick, even after many repeats the link seems to make a nice click when put back together.
(7 speed chain)[/QUOTE]

I agree that damage doesn't seem evident, but then again, few people have a good look. There is some plastic deformormation in those notches. I also agree that with repeated use you can still generate a nice click, but certainly not one as strong as the first one. It's all moot, if it still works.

I don't suggest wide-scale failure but I have had one experience, and only one, where a quick link did undo itself and the chain came off. With the double safety system of a recessed key slot and a narrow press-fit passage for the pin to move through, the already slim chances of a link coming undone are double. Double a slim chance is nevertheless still slim. Unfortunately I never took the trouble of examining the link closely afterwards and I can still kick myself for it.

For this to happen - the link to come undone - the specific link out of the 100 or so on the bike, has to be at the right place at the wrong time. We know the chain cannot be in tension for it to happen, thus it has to happen somewhere in the slack run. We also know that the link has to pushed together whilst the chain is slack and, I would imagine we need some vibration and a dry-ish chain to make it all the more plausible. These conditions are of course rare: the shifting link has to be under sideways compression (which only happens at the rear sprocket somewhere between half-past and 12 'o clock, without tension in the chain (no pedalling, possibly with a dodgy freehub body that keeps on turning when you stop pedalling, a bumpy road and dusty or wet conditions which would have dried out the lubrication.

It seems to me that the odds are so small that had I played the Lotto that day I'd be typing on a gold-plated keyboard right now.

However, would you mind, next time you change your chain and prepare to dump the much-used link, to let me know. I'd like you to send it to me and I'll examine and photograph it.
 
OP
OP
mark st1

mark st1

Plastic Manc
Location
Leafy Berkshire
The link was of the non reusable kind. So once I finally got the bugger off it wasn't going to go back on. Trip to the bike shop where he reattached a new one with some fancy pliers and now all good in the hood.
 
Location
Loch side.
The link was of the non reusable kind. So once I finally got the bugger off it wasn't going to go back on. Trip to the bike shop where he reattached a new one with some fancy pliers and now all good in the hood.

Hmmmm. Assumption is the mother of all farkups. Why did we all assume it was a removable link?
 
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