# Chain slap or bounce question.



## jasonball (Nov 9, 2010)

Here lately when going over bumps like rocks and roots. I am getting a lot of chain slap and movement. sometime pendin on the gear the chain will jump 1 or 2 gears from bouncing around. this is with out pedaling. 

My question is can I remove 1 link to make it a little tighter. the chain has about 200 miles on it. not alot at all.


----------



## jeffscott (May 10, 2006)

jasonball said:


> Here lately when going over bumps like rocks and roots. I am getting a lot of chain slap and movement. sometime pendin on the gear the chain will jump 1 or 2 gears from bouncing around. this is with out pedaling.
> 
> My question is can I remove 1 link to make it a little tighter. the chain has about 200 miles on it. not alot at all.


The chain can easily be cut and shortened...

but shift to big on the front and big on the back....does the rear dearailer look streacthed out and tight...

If so then you can't really shorten the chain...

Try tightening the B screw puts more spring into the RD...

you can wrap the seat stay in something as well...

or just ignore it.


----------



## lzcool (Jun 30, 2011)

Also remember that when you go downhill it's recomended to keep the chain in a more middle gear, If you are 1:1 it's too loose.
I usually try to have it in 2:4 or 2:5
Are you doing that?
Did you put the chain by yourself?
The usual rule of thumb is:
Without passing through the deraileur, The chain in the biggest front gear and in the biggest back gear plus 3 or 4 links should be the length of your chain so everything works fine, at least with long deraileurs (I checked this in my MTB mechanics book)
I hope you find it useful


----------



## jasonball (Nov 9, 2010)

I will check tonight. i had a bike shop put the chain on. i replaced the chain and rear gears at the same time. I do have a neoprene chain stay protector. I guess I will post up a pic later tonight as to what it looks like with it in the big and big.


----------



## kapusta (Jan 17, 2004)

lzcool said:


> Also remember that when you go downhill it's recomended to keep the chain in a more middle gear, If you are 1:1 it's too loose.
> I usually try to have it in 2:4 or 2:5
> Are you doing that?
> Did you put the chain by yourself?
> ...


In terms of chain slap, the gear _ratio _is not what matters, it is the combined size of the ring and cog to take up as much slack as possible.

For example, 32 front / 32 rear (1:1) is going to be a whole lot better for chain slap than 22 front, 11 rear (2:1). Likewise, 44/22 is going to be a lot better than 32/16, even though they are both 2:1 ratios.

I think the best rule of thumb in terms for gear selection is to go into your biggest chainring for rough DH, so that whatever gear ratio you want, you will be using the biggest cogs/rings to get it. Of course, if you end up seriously cross chaining, you might want to go to a smaller ring.

I believe the rule of thumb for chain lengths is big ring / big cog + 1 _complete _link (some call it 2 because each link has 2 parts).


----------

