Had my bike serviced today and on the ride home looked at the replacement chain for the first time – it´s too short isn´t it?
It´s in big chainring and smallest cog in the photo.

Edited for link as image didn´t work

edit for your edit, looks fine to me. Big/big plus 2 links is the rule isnt it, vertical cage on smallest sprocket looks fairly normal.

Looks ok to me

If the chain goes from big cog to big cog you’re ok.

Looks spot-on to me – that’s about how I have mine.

Unless you regularly bodge gear changes in which case you may want to add a couple of links.

Mines similar.

Oh OK, thanks. I´m sure the previous one was longer. It looked a lot worse on bigger cogs (still in big chainring) but if the STW are happy then so am I!

You need to check big sprocket to big chainring, can’t tell for definite from small to big.

mtbtomo +1

Post another photo of big / big.. if it reaches with a tiny bit to spare then it’s just right.

ok, here’s a picture of big-big. It changed up no problem.

photo(1) by Sandra and Alex, on Flickr

Hmm. I’d like another link in there.

Why would you ever want to have that chainline?

fasthaggis, you do not want that gear selection/chainline, but the system needs enough chain to be able to do it if you make a mistake & go there by accident or it just breaks stuff.

I don’t want that chainline but I’ve posted it to help others advise me if it’s too short or not

That all depends on the rider and their mechanical sympathy (or lack of).

I’ve run med cage mechs for years and never had an issue, because im aware of what gears in using. If the OP strays into the big / big combination occasionally then add a link to be safe.

Somehow I read it as my chin is too short… Must be tired

but the system needs enough chain to be able to do it if you make a mistake & go there by accident or it just breaks stuff.

I get all that,but ..
I see roadies doing big big a lot and it makes me cry for the chain.

I grew up believing that an extreme chain line was a bad thing,so I just never do it. It’s like an auto pilot thing now 🙂

I don’t think I’ve ever gone big-big by accident and I’m quite careful about it so can I leave it as it is?

eckinspain, its OK, maybe 1 more link wont have hurt, but its fine.

Fine IMO.

It’s fine on a hardtail frame. It goes into that gear without damage, that’s all you need. You won’t often if ever actually use that combo so all you need is to know that if you do it by accident you won’t break something.

If I did want to add another link can I just add another powerlink next to the current one?

Thanks for all your help.

If I did want to add another link can I just add another powerlink next to the current one?

you can link in a couple of extra links if you need to, I keep all the little sections of chain left over from previous shortenings just in cas e I do need to extend a chain by a couple of links…

If it breaks, you know it’s not ok. If not it’ll be fine. 😉

Id put another link in there. You cant just add another powerlink, it needs to be riveted in. Pop ir back to the shop and get them to do it.

It’s long enough to reach the gears you should never knowingly use – what the heck else do you want – a longer and more flappy chain?!?

That length is fine. Case closed.

+1 its fine, big/big shows its got a couple of extra links there.

gofaster, interesting pic-I’ve always had mine as the OPs with the rear mech cage vertical on smallest sprocket (as per my first post) but never actually seen this advocated.

I see roadies doing big big a lot and it makes me cry for the chain.

I imagine the roadies only have a double so the angles won’t be as extreme

There was a big thread on this over on Bike Radar recently. Chain too short, jammed, derallieur twisted, chainstay snapped, frame farked…..

Sometimes in big/big, the chain can be only just long enough when using all the slack from the derallieur tension. The whole lot binds and it is really obvious. This doesn’t look too far from that. You’re aiming for a balance between too much chain and the derailleur wrapping back on itself in small/small and too little and binding the whole lot up. How does it look small/small? If it’s not completely wrapped back on itself and there’s no binding in big/big, it should be OK (no implied guarantee 🙂 ).

I’m not advocating riding small/small or big/big just using the extremes during set up.