Fixie - method to check the slack in the chainline...

Hi,
i am sure this would have been discussed, but he is the new method
of checking the slack in the chain line of a fixie. When pedaling, the
top half of the chain is taught and all the slack is in the bottom half.
When you stop pedaling, the time gap after which, the cranks to start
moving is a good measure of the slack.

When you have stopped peadling the crank, the momentum of the wheel will
start to drive the cranks and the slack will move from the bottom half
to the top half - and the time gap i think is a good indication. At a
given speed, the time is proportional to the amt of slack in the chain.

Could be vice-versa as well - the time gap between wheel driving the
cranks -- to cranks driving the wheel.

+ravi

Ravi wrote:
Hi,
i am sure this would have been discussed, but he is the new method
of checking the slack in the chain line of a fixie. When pedaling,
the top half of the chain is taught and all the slack is in the
bottom half. When you stop pedaling, the time gap after which, the
cranks to start moving is a good measure of the slack.

When you have stopped peadling the crank, the momentum of the wheel
will start to drive the cranks and the slack will move from the
bottom half to the top half - and the time gap i think is a good
indication. At a given speed, the time is proportional to the amt of
slack in the chain.
Could be vice-versa as well - the time gap between wheel driving the
cranks -- to cranks driving the wheel.

+ravi

Just look at the chain at every point of the crank rotation. If it's droopy
anywhere, it's loose. No need to whip out the stopwatch.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

On Sat, 5 Nov 2005 23:07:43 -0500, "Phil, Squid-in-Training"
wrote:

Ravi wrote:
Hi,
i am sure this would have been discussed, but he is the new method
of checking the slack in the chain line of a fixie. When pedaling,
the top half of the chain is taught and all the slack is in the
bottom half. When you stop pedaling, the time gap after which, the
cranks to start moving is a good measure of the slack.

When you have stopped peadling the crank, the momentum of the wheel
will start to drive the cranks and the slack will move from the
bottom half to the top half - and the time gap i think is a good
indication. At a given speed, the time is proportional to the amt of
slack in the chain.
Could be vice-versa as well - the time gap between wheel driving the
cranks -- to cranks driving the wheel.

+ravi

Just look at the chain at every point of the crank rotation. If it's droopy
anywhere, it's loose. No need to whip out the stopwatch.

And if there's any significant variation in the slack through the
crank's rotation, you need to fix the problem, not try to patch over
it with some kind of tensioner.

The few fixie riders of my acquaintance all say that if you can feel
any significant backmotion in the crank when switching from power to
braking, the chain slack needs to be adjusted out, or there's
something else wrong that needs attention. I'll take their word for
it; the couple of weeks that I spent years ago riding an unintentional
fixie convinced me that I never, ever wanted to do that again.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
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