You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
How do you calculate appropriate chain length for a 1x setup?
Its on a full susser - so do I need to allow for chain ‘growth’
TIA
Yep, you need to account for chain growth. From personal experience, not doing so is likely to result in tearing the derailleur off the frame and lunching your wheel with it.
You don’t really ‘calculate’ so much as measure.
1x is the same as multi ring in this; hang the chain over the largest cog and the biggest chainring (do not thread through RD) and pull the ends together. Then add a pair of links/an inch.
FS complicates it a little as the distance between the crank and cassette changes during the arc of the suspension. This is ‘chain growth’. The correct way to deal with it is to remove the shock or deflate it and then with the bike in a stand move the backend until you can see where the longest point is, then tie the rear triangle to the seat tube or similar to keep it at the fully extended point - and then do chain sizing as normal. It’s a pain, but it’s really the only accurate user method...
Good advice!! Thanks for that!! 🙂
That’s massively helpful - thank you
No worries! 🙂
The better news is that once you've done this once and you're sure that the chain is properly sized for the bike, so long as you haven't changed anything, the next time round you can just use the old chain to determine the length of the new one.