On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:45:31 +0100, N_Cook wrote:

No tools it said - what a clever idea I thought.
Not unless you have the fingers of a rock climber , or what is the secret.
One thing I learnt long, long ago , tie a bit of wire a few links back
either side of the link before removing or replacing to take the tension off
the link area.

There is one type that you can buy in Halfords where you bend the chain at
the link undo it. It's identifiable by having the two pins on one plate
and two holes in the other. It should go together OK when new
but I had problems getting them undone and then they were bent so not easy
to use again (the instructions said they could only be used once).

The SRAM ones are much better IMO and to open them you just squeeze and
push together. They have one pin and one hole on each side and they don't
mention any limit on the number of times they can be opened and closed
(although one of mine seems a little dodgy at the moment). I think
they're no more expensive than the crap one Halfords sell.

peter