chain

Officially launched in 1988, Sram is a relatively young company with a lot of design ingenuity and the original maker of the Grip Shift. They’ve been making their way up through the bike component industry, proving themselves to be a reliable company providing a reliable product.

And they look good too.

They have also forged biking alliances with several companies, including RockShox, Quarq, Avid, Truvativ and Zipp.

So let’s start from the bottom up.

S-Series

 This is Sram’s entry level components group. Here you will find a series of parts which consist of brake levers, shifters, cassettes, chains, crankarms and derailleurs for road, cyclocross and track bikes. The series comes in 8, 9 and 10 speeds and even offer cantilever brakes from Avid. 

Quarq

Chain wear can definitely affect your ride for the worst and can cause an accident. They wear out as a result of the rivets being pulled on by the outer plates. It’s what they call a chain stretch. The chain itself doesn’t really stretch; it’s just the plates being pulled apart.

At any rate, it’s no good so to check if there is wear. If things don’t look perfectly round or straight, that is a possible indication of damage.

Your chain is really far gone if, because they stretched and pulled so much, they don’t even sit on the sprocket teeth and ride up.

There are also a couple of methods you can use to check. One is using a chain checking tool like this one:

In order to make sure you have the right length of chain on your bike, place the new chain on the largest chainring as well as the largest sprocket. You don’t have to thread it through the derailleur just yet.

Once you’ve got that done, pull the ends together. See where they could approximately connect. Then take the longer end and count off two pinholes more. Make sure they are able to mate with the other end and normally, that means that the part that you cut with the chain tool must end with INNER PLATES. If the point of two more pinholes ends in an outer link, round up and cut at the next inner link. DON’T EVER ROUND DOWN!

Thread the chain through the derailleurs and then with your chain tool or with your master link, connect the two ends. With either case, you will probably need to pull and bend a tad the link as it will probably be a bit stiff.  

Chains are where you can get a lot of grit and just plain dirtiness accumulating so it’s something you should clean and maintain on a regular basis. If you need to install a chain, remember to get one that is compatible with your system because the larger the number of sprockets you have on your bike, the thinner the chain you will need. A thin chain for a 10-sprocket bike can theoretically be used on sprockets designed for wider chains.

The inverse is not true. You cannot use a chain from a single-speed bike (wider sprocket) on a 10-speed (thinner and multiple sprockets).

Chains are where you can get a lot of grit and just plain dirtiness accumulating so it’s something you should clean and maintain on a regular basis. If you need to install a chain, remember to get one that is compatible with your system because the larger the number of sprockets you have on your bike, the thinner the chain you will need. A thin chain for a 10-sprocket bike can theoretically be used on sprockets designed for wider chains.

The inverse is not true. You cannot use a chain from a single-speed bike (wider sprocket) on a 10-speed (thinner and multiple sprockets).

As bikers, we all want to be spoiled for choice. The Triathlete wouldn’t dare ride their carbon fiber cheese slicer to the corner shop nor would the Downhiller even dream of busting out the double-suspension 29er for a coffee run.

Solution? Why not give a carbon belt drive bike a spin for your commuter money?

This is an early episode where Jim goes through parts of the bicycle.  Jim starts with the front wheel, rim, tire, tube, spokes and hub, then moves on to the fork and brake and brake calipers. 

Next he checks out the handlebars, brake levers, and bar tape.  On to the stem, and headset which transitions into the frame, which consists of the headtube, top tube, down tube, seat tube, chain stay and seat stay. 

Which brings us to the seatpost and saddle.  Moving on to the drivetrain made up of the crank, chain, cassette, rear derailleur and front derailleur.  What allows the crank to turn is the bottom bracket and that's pretty much what we're working with.  See you on the road, bitches!

Joe's much less suave, and much more annoying rendition of "Part's of a Bicycle":

A man and his rag: In this video we give you a quick overview of how keep your bike in superb running condition by keeping your drivetrain (i.e. cassette, chain, chain rings, dearailleur) clean. with a Rag Edition.

First thing, if you don't have a handy dandy chain cleaner, like the one in the video.  Most people probably don't, but they do a great job of cleaning the bike chain.