Snap ring pliers

Will basic snap ring pliers remove and install a master link? They are easier to buy than chain/bike specific.
Deacon Mark

On 16/07/2020 17:50, Mark Cleary wrote:
Will basic snap ring pliers remove and install a master link? They
are easier to buy than chain/bike specific. Deacon Mark

If you bent the tips over I don't see why not. I've tried needle nose
pliers and they just slip off. I bought a proper tool as I'm one of the
defective human beings that simply cannot get the bloody things apart
any other way.

On 7/16/2020 10:50 AM, Mark Cleary wrote:
Will basic snap ring pliers remove and install a master link? They are easier to buy than chain/bike specific.
Deacon Mark


Yes or any pliers when squeezed diagonally across the two
plates. Or move the snaplink pair 90 degrees to the other
links and press one corner on anything with an edge.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Thursday, July 16, 2020 at 5:50:11 PM UTC+2, Mark Cleary wrote:
Will basic snap ring pliers remove and install a master link? They are easier to buy than chain/bike specific.
Deacon Mark

Probably, but why? Here they are readily available from a lot of manufacturers, are less than 10 euro. It is like denying yourself a chain wip, a pedal wrench or a chain tool. You are always need one of those because I don't see a chain replaced by something else in the near future so who not invest in something cheap that makes live a little easier.

Lou

On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:50:07 -0700 (PDT), Mark Cleary
wrote:

Will basic snap ring pliers remove and install a master link? They are easier to buy than chain/bike specific.
Deacon Mark

If you bend the tips of the tool a bit so they won't slip they
probably will but a proper tool costs in the neighborhood of $10.00 at
Amazon and will likely last the rest of your life, and, allows you to
not only remove a tight link but also reinstall it.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 7/16/2020 3:48 PM, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:50:07 -0700 (PDT), Mark Cleary
wrote:

Will basic snap ring pliers remove and install a master link? They are easier to buy than chain/bike specific.
Deacon Mark

If you bend the tips of the tool a bit so they won't slip they
probably will but a proper tool costs in the neighborhood of $10.00 at
Amazon and will likely last the rest of your life, and, allows you to
not only remove a tight link but also reinstall it.
--
Cheers,

John B.

What John said. If your snap-ring pliers are like mine, they're a tad
on the fragile side compared to a proper bike tool. I would suspect the
tips would bend upon use, perhaps before doing the job.

That said, I've found master links vary considerably in how much effort
they require to open/close. It may be connected to the size; 9 spd SRAM
I could often open by hand, at least if they weren't too grimy. 10s
KMC's, my current chain of choice, are harder to open, so I got the
tool. 11s was hard even *using* the correct tool (KMC again IIRC).

Mark J.

On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 18:09:27 -0700, "Mark J."
wrote:

On 7/16/2020 3:48 PM, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:50:07 -0700 (PDT), Mark Cleary
wrote:

Will basic snap ring pliers remove and install a master link? They are easier to buy than chain/bike specific.
Deacon Mark

If you bend the tips of the tool a bit so they won't slip they
probably will but a proper tool costs in the neighborhood of $10.00 at
Amazon and will likely last the rest of your life, and, allows you to
not only remove a tight link but also reinstall it.
--
Cheers,

John B.

What John said. If your snap-ring pliers are like mine, they're a tad
on the fragile side compared to a proper bike tool. I would suspect the
tips would bend upon use, perhaps before doing the job.

That said, I've found master links vary considerably in how much effort
they require to open/close. It may be connected to the size; 9 spd SRAM
I could often open by hand, at least if they weren't too grimy. 10s
KMC's, my current chain of choice, are harder to open, so I got the
tool. 11s was hard even *using* the correct tool (KMC again IIRC).

Mark J.

I think that some of the 9 speed master links were designed to be
removable without tools. I seem to remember that the links that
required a tool to open them were labeled as "single use only", or
some such warning, while the easier opening links were not.
--
Cheers,

John B.