Chain suck sage knowledge

Here is a web page that I came across at Mike T.s Chain Pages

It has more info than you care to know about chain suck.
Chain Suck in a Nutshell by Johnathan Levy

I'll let you read it for yourself but there was one bit of advice that saved my hide one time. I was doing a shakedown ride before a race and found that my granny gear was chain sucking all by itself. I tried filing down any burrs but in looking at the granny you could visibly see the hooking of the teeth


It was getting to be later Saturday, bike shop closed, race the next day, I was starting to willy wig. Not sure what to do, almost called a buddy to swap out the entire BB and crankset with his. But that is just asking for trouble due to front Der. issues and other trouble shooting that you don't want to be doing in a race.

One of the fixes off that chain suck web page was that some granny rings are symmetrical and they can be flipped around. So you don't have the hooking going in the same direction. I couldn't believe that such a simple thing would work, but in desparation I tried it.

ta da

chain suck gone, able to race w/o issue.

Granny rings are one of those weight weenie / durability toss ups. The weight saving between an alloy and steel 22t ring are significant, and the cost difference is also not a ton which makes the gram/$ savings a good ratio. There is the durability issue though. It is not the greatest idea to be flipping your alloy granny ring over though because it is still alloy and it will wear on the opposite side just as fast. But again, in a pinch it will get you through.

The other tidbit of info was what happens when you put a new chain on worn chainrings. Watch out !

Anyway. Check it out