this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024
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bike wrench
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A place to ask bicycle repair questions, and for bike shop monkeys to share advanced non commercial wrenching resources (no YouTube self promotion). This is only for repair related topics.
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Uh. On all bikes throughout my entire life, both pedal- and motor-, I've just measured center-to-center on the link pins with a ruler, like it says in the manual. It's even easier on a bicycle than a motorcycle because you can just grab a pedal with one hand and make sure all the slack is taken up out of the chain. You don't even have to get your hands greasy.
For sprocket and/or chainring wear, my rule of thumb has just been once the teeth start looking like the water in Super Mario Bros. world 2-2, it's time for a new one.
That's gotten me across many hundreds of thousands of miles, no sweat. I fail to see how spending money on a specialized (and apparently shitty) tool to make this more complicated on yourself is a better way to live your life vs. spending that money instead on tires/oil/honey waffles/whatever it is you're into.
Same with the caliper suggestion, when fractions of a millimetre make the difference between a "worn" chain and a good one, I wouldn't want to use a ruler. Especially not on the bike.
It's so easy to use a chain checker tool, I'm not sure why anyone would use rulers and calipers. Just make sure you use an accurate one, which is the point of the post.