In the horrendous mud of the Surrey hills this weekend, my bike gain sucked like a mad thing and my wife’s was mostly fine.

I had a very worn top jockey wheel (spikey).
Would that have been the main cause?
(No stiff links).

Replace your granny ring.

Old chain on new chainring is the most comon cause. Or just a very worn chain.

as jools said, single ring suck (the kind that doesn’t happen while shifting) is caused by a worn chainring, not a worn chain. if you’re away and don’t have a spare ring, flip your granny around, this got me through a week in the peaks. if you have a file and the time you can try filing the teeth flat too.

i’ll be carrying a spare granny in future because of this, chainsuck ruins your confidence as once it starts you don’t know when it’s going to happen.

the wife probably doesn’t ride as much as you? 🙂

New granny ring, ok, thanks.
I just put it a new bottom bracket which pushes the chain line out by and extra 2mm or so… That wouldn’t effect things would it?

Anything else to look for?

Thanks.

this guy http://www.fagan.co.za/Bikes/Csuck/ spent way too long on this, i doubt there is any more that can be said, other than my tip above about flipping/filing.

also.. i think, but can’t prove, that the SLX chainrings are more likely to suck than the cheaper deore, because of their deeper and more shaped teeth.

and avoid alu and ti! there i think that’s it 🙂

my new FS frame chainsucked the moment i first rode it out of the drive, so i’m touchy about this eh.

Check your chainring

Thanks Smiff!
Trying to keep momentum up sloppy hills with a chain that keeps crunching to a halt is not fun on a four hour ride!

I managed to keep my sense of humour because I also wore both pads to metal after 25 miles so things got very exciting on te downs too.

My wife had a great time. Hey ho.

i know exactly what you mean. instead of enjoying the ride/view, you’re just feeling for it to jam to try not to snap the chain or bugger your frame. no fun at all. buy a cheap steel ring, lube up and you’ll be fine. the wear only has to be slight for this to happen.