bike question: new chain skipping?

Question

My relatively new mountain bike with only 175 moderate off-road miles had its chain break. Being a dumb a** I threw out the chain and have the local bike shop put a new chain on for me. Now its skipping like crazy. Not even ridable!!

I read another Yahoo answers posted question which responders gave really two possible scenarios: 1) cog and sprocket wear or 2) new chain installed by monkey and is too long.

Each of these cases has very different solutions. Ultimately my question really is do you think it is possible that my cogs are that worn in only 175 miles? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!!

Answer 1

no way can the cogs be worn.



I can think of three different possibilities, all lead to bringing the bike back to the shop to get fixed:



1. your bike is out of index. barrel adjustments will solve that.



2. the limits aren't set right.



3. theres a stiff link in the chain.



good news is that you have a new bike and all should be fixed free of charge. All are minor fixes, and should not take more than 30 min to complete.

Answer 2

This is an easy one...

If they put the right type of chain on it then you have a link that is binding. When they put the chain on it was likely one without a master link. These chains must be connected together by pushing a pin into the side plates. This happens all the time and any deceint mechanic would losen that link so it would not bind.



Flip your bike over and watch the chain go over the rear cogs and you should see a link that doesn't wrap around the cog. It will look like a kink.



This being said... take it back and have them fix it. I'd be POed and you should be too.

Answer 3

A good way to see if your cogs are worn is to shift onto whatever gear it is skipping at and take a look at the place furthest back where the chain and cog are in contact. If you can see a space between the side plate of the chain and the cog, your cogs are shot. This is not very likely given the light use on the bike.



What is much more likely is that, like you mentioned, the chain is a few links too long.



Or, that the shifter are out of adjustment. Try moving the adjustment barrel on the REAR shifter cable. It will stop if you adjust it in the right direction. It will skip completely to the next cog if you adjust it in the wrong direction. It may also require you to play with the adjustment barrel of the rear derailleur. This is located where the cable enters the derailleur. It's like a thumb screw that you move 1/4 turn at a time.



Good luck.

Answer 4

Try this: Where the gear cable enters the back of the Derailleur, it will have a plastic star shaped nut. Turn this nut by hand about half a turn clockwise. If it gets worse, then get off the bike and turn it a full turn anticlockwise. It sounds like the indexing is out, this is probably due to a stretched cable, perfectly normal. Without being there its hard for me to fix the problem, but try it. Hope it helps.

Answer 5

With your bike having so little miles on it Id say the prob is the new chain, take it back to the shop that did the work.

Another possibility is that when the original chain broke you may have also broken off a tooth on the chainring or rear cassette and if thats what happened the shop should have caught that when you brought it in originaly.

Answer 6

I seriously doubt you'd wear out anything with so few miles, unless the bike wasn't set up right in the first place. It's most likely a chain issue, like everyone else said, so go back to the shop and make them fix it right.

Answer 7

I agree with MirageGuitar and M R. Having worked in a shop for 15 years, I've seen this many many times especially with new mechanics or guys that are in a hurry. Like they said if you back the pin in the binding link out just a little it will fix your problem.

Answer 8

I can almost guarantee that your problem is a stiff link... when the chain was installed the "monkey" failed to back out the rivet a little bit. This is repairable in less than a minute.