sizing chain - too long?

Hello again...

finally got a real albeit short ride in this PM after replacing the
chains on both my bike and hers as well (hers was twisted, mine was
simply hacked together) both bikes were much improved. No more phantom
shifting on hers; I'm going to assume that the old chain was twisted
prior to de-mothballing and I just failed to notice. Good stuff.

Question - when I replaced both chains, I found that the chains that
came off were the exact same length as the new ones that I bought. On
her bike this is probably about right as she has a really big largest
sprocket on her cassette but on mine it really does appear to be too
long. I guess that means that whoever built these bikes just threw on a
chain without sizing it. I can obviously see the downsides to having a
chain too short, but what are the drawbacks to making them too long? I
will size them properly just for insurance but it just got me wondering,
as the PO of my bike apparently rode for many miles with the chain "too
long" (and made from pieces of a Hyperglide and SRAM chain mixed
together, no less) without major issues.

nate
--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

Nate Nagel Wrote:
Hello again...

finally got a real albeit short ride in this PM after replacing the
chains on both my bike and hers as well (hers was twisted, mine was
simply hacked together) both bikes were much improved. No more
phantom
shifting on hers; I'm going to assume that the old chain was twisted
prior to de-mothballing and I just failed to notice. Good stuff.

Question - when I replaced both chains, I found that the chains that
came off were the exact same length as the new ones that I bought. On
her bike this is probably about right as she has a really big largest
sprocket on her cassette but on mine it really does appear to be too
long. I guess that means that whoever built these bikes just threw on
a
chain without sizing it. I can obviously see the downsides to having
a
chain too short, but what are the drawbacks to making them too long?
I
will size them properly just for insurance but it just got me
wondering,
as the PO of my bike apparently rode for many miles with the chain
"too
long" (and made from pieces of a Hyperglide and SRAM chain mixed
together, no less) without major issues.

nate
--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=26


--
daveornee