I have been riding my new Covert for a couple of weeks now and have been introduced to the joys of chain suck all of a sudden. Only when I drop into the granny though. My previous 2006 Heckler had an elevated chain stay so I have never had this before. After getting caught out a couple of times and coming to a grinding halt, I have ‘nearly’ mastered the half back pedal when I can feel it hooking the chain up, I can feel the spring tension in the rear mech through the pedals when its going to happen, but it itsa always going to happen when I need to drop to granny and want instant drive. The half back pedal is the difference between cleaning the ‘impossible climb’ or fluffing it before I even start.
Would a chain device for a double chain ring help to cure this? If so, what are people using, whats the best?
If I’m barking up the wrong tree with the chain device, is there another cure that I should know about?

P.S. The Covert is super lovely otherwise for the record. What I initially thought might be a wallowy inefficient handicap has very quickly proved itself to be a super bouncy, hoppy, poppy bundle of fun makes me use my brakes a lot less.

I keep almost clicking the buy button on a Blackspire Stinger chain device. But haven’t done so yet. Will be watching this space!

After just a couple of weeks its likely the gears may need a fettle…if the chain isn’t dropping cleanly onto the granny it could be hooking up on one of the shifting ramps/pins on the face of the middle ring.

See if you can replicate it on a bike stand by getting someone to scrub the rear brake to add some resistance to the drivetrain whilst you turn the pedals and downshift, you may be able to see where its catching.

Thanks Spooky, I will have a look in the stand. I am using a 36t Middleburn shifting middle ring and a larger than normal Shimano 26t granny as a double and bash set up on a, what was Shimano SLX triple chain set. I went for the larger granny as I have a 11-36 cassette and didn’t want the lowest gear to silly spinny.

I’ve always had a Stinger on mine from new with no problems