What chain guide for XC?

Morning,

I’m getting fed up of my chain keep coming off on bumpy descents. I’m running a 36t ring up front with a bash guard and a 11-32 cassette. I’ve lined up the 36t ring to be pretty much alligned with the middle sprocket. Yesterday I lost the chain 6 or 7 times. Ride before I lost it a similar number of times before shortening the chain to try and remedy it. Clearly that didn’t help.

Any opinions on chain guides for XC use? Or would I maybe get away with using a front mech just to help keep the chain on?

Cheers,
jon

what keeps the chain on when you ride with a triple …the front mech … a front mech is the simple solution

n gear works well, paired with a bashring.

I’ve got the same problem on a XC hardtail but with a triple ring setup – front mech isn’t helping me. Relatively new (long-cage) rear mech, chain as short as it can go. Even sticking it in the big ring and top-third of cassette on descents ain’t helping…

2nd the n gear jumpstop… you already have the bashring, this will cure your dropping the chain…

My record was 13 dropped chains in a 1 hours race at Lotts Wood, bought the jump stop and bash and never dropped a chain since.

a11y will work fine on triple ring setups too if your experiencing trouble, though yours sounds like the front mech isnt set right.

I thought the front mech might be the easiest and cheapest (seeing as I have one!) solution. I’ll give it a go. If it doesn’t quite perform I’ll look for other solutions.

Cheers.

Guitarmanjon, yep it will work nicely, the jump stop is neater looking though…

Might be a bit retro, for which I may get a thrashing, but I’m thinking of getting my DCD out of the spares box!

Had a few chain problems at GT yesterday, nothing drastic but don’t really want to worry about trimming the front mech to get the chain back on while trying not to die on a berm.
Ran a DCD for many years and it always kept the chain under control, never caused a shifting problem, and made a cool (if slightly 90’s) rumbling noise!

They might not be ‘in’, but I always found it did the job brilliantly.

Rob

I ride with a triple on my Trance and the same thing happens.
I’ve even had the chain stuck under the rear linkage and the BB.
Took ages to get that out of there.

I was looking at this.. Chain Reactor

But bottled it.
Anyone got a linky for the jump stop ?

http://www.billys.co.uk/english/group.php?prod=chng-js

depends where you are and what bike you ride.

IME the only thing that actualy worked was a MRP system-3, but that was a DH hardtail in the peaks, probably about as harsh a conditions for keeping a chain on as its possible to engineer!

Thanks for the responses.

True, the jump stop will look neater. Maybe a quick mod to an old front mech with a hacksaw will be neater too 🙂

If I could find the old DCD that’d be going straight on, whether it worked or not!

Just a thought, & you probably already have, but did you shorten the chain…?

[big ring to big ring & add a link]

Yep, did that during the first ride where chain-falling-off became a problem. Not sure i can take any more out as the derailleur is near horizontal when using the big sprocket on the rear.

But here’s a thought…if the chain is coming off by jumping off the top of the chain ring, will shortening the chain help much with that? Maybe I’m being thick, it’s been a long day already.

This worked OK for me – Kore Chain Reactor from Chain Reaction I think. It supposedly allowed you to run three rings, but was slightly noisy.

Zipties…

Is your 36T ring from a double setup? As in designed/sold/etc to run with a little ring as well (and/or a big ring as well)

If so its designed to derail to chain easily (side-ramped teeth for shifting) and the front mech holds it

If you got a unramped chainring (which also has much deeper teeth (deeper than the chain) It will help keep the chain on no end
I’ve switched to one of these recently from a bash, home made jumpstop and ramped chainring setup and it works better. I’ve not took it to properly rough terrain yet (like the peak/lakes/etc..) (being my second bike) but its not dropped it once so far